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AND IN THE 



UNITED STATES 



COMPARED 

BEING THE 



ANNUAL ADDRESS, 

DELIVERED OCT. 20Tn, 1863, BEFORE THE 

'IT 



IN THE 

HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

CAPITOL, 

MONTPELIER , 

jr. TTATXS r>E PEYSTEK. 



• Do Thou direct Thy Chariot, Lord, 

And si'ido it at Thy will ; 
Without Thy aid our Strength is vain. 
And npelcsB all our f^kill." 

' Send down Thy Pcaco and banish StrifR, 

Let Bitterness depart ; 
Revive the Spirit of the Past 

In every Switzcr's heart." 

ZWINGLI, THK Swiss KKFORMEn'a IItmm. 



CATSKILL. 

JOSEPH JOESBURY, PRINTER, "JOURNAL OFFICE." 

1863. 






1 



.v^A(^ 



Eutercd according to Act of CongrcBS, in the year 1863, 

By J. WATTb DE I'EVSTER, in the Clerk's Oftice of the District i'ouri 

for tlic Southern District of New York. 



SECESSION IN SWITZERLAND. 



" The drum was beat ; and. lo ! 
The plough, the workshop is forsaken, all 
Swarm to the old familiar long loved banners.' 



"What? shall this 'land' become a field of slaughter, 

And brother-killing Discord, fire-eyed, 

Be let loose through its ' vales ' to roam and rage ? 

Shall the decision be delivered over 

To deaf remorseless Rage, that hears no leader? 

Here is not room for battle, only for butchery. 

Well, let it be ! I have long thought of it, 

So let it burst then !" 

Schiller's Death of Wallenstkin^. 



History is the School of Princes. It is their duty to derive Instruction therefrom 
in regard to the Errors of Times Past, in order to avoid them ; to understand tliat 
they must form for themselves a System ; to learn to follow that out step by step ; 
and to know that the Ruler, who has calculated his course of conduct the most 
wisely, is the only one who can get the better of those who act less in accord- 
ance with the lesson than he. 

Frederic the Great. 

The History of Foreign Nations is only interesting to us on account of its rela- 
tions (analogies) with our own, or of the great achievements, whose performance Is 
recorded therein. Voltaire. 

A student of history, not satisfied witJi mere superficial 
examination but ever urged to a closer and closer compar- 
ison of analogies, I have often been struck -with the pers- 
picuity of every sentiment of Jewry's •wisest monarch. — 
The Preacher-king seems to have exhausted the subtle- 
ties of human nature and reduced them to axioms in 
Ecclesiastes. When he declared that everything w\as 
vanity and vexation of spirit ; that there had been, was, 
and would be nothing new under the sun ; that the great- 
est services must expect nothing but ingratitude from 
individuals or communities ; he was merely rpducing to 



4 
philosopliical sententiousuess what Job, 1227 years before, 
liad experienced, and what 2S60 years have demonstrated 
as unalterable. Human means change, just as the row- 
galley has been succeeded by the steaiahoat, and the 7/ian- 
(/07iel, by the cannon; — human objects never : — 

'•Men change with fortune, Manners change with climes," 
"Tenets with books and Principles with times!. :"— 

nevertheless men's ends are always the same. The 
progress of human events advances, rolling on in circles, 
which may have been typified by the wheels — 

''Wheel within wheel undrawn. 

Itself instinct with spirit" 

A\'hich EzEKiEL saw in his magnificent vision upon the 
])lains of Chehar. In accordance with this immutable 
law of progression, those who have read closely and re- 
flected deepl}" will see that the events that have occurred 
in this, our, country are nothing new, but have had their 
parallels in the Free Governments of Ancient Times, in 
the Republics of the Middle Ages, in the federal career of 
the United Provinces of Holland, and, very especially, in 
the history of the Swiss Confederation. In the case of 
the last, the similitude is so wonderful that all whose at- 
tention has been called to the subject; have remarked and 
noted, almost in the same words, many successive, aston- 
ishing points of resemblance. Before entering however 
upon the particular parallel in history, one pertinent con- 
sideration should never be forgotten. Wherever a free 
government, invited or permitted foreign interference, 
that government was overthrown. The Monroe Doctkine 
is nothing more than a recognition of this immutable law, 
and, if energetically applied, it is an antidote to the poison 
of foreign intervention in the affairs of this, our continent ; 
ourif. by the law of nnJure, ours by the force of arms, as 



5 
soon as victorious over treason we can give due attention 
to the intrusion of foreign enemies'. 

The minds of our youth have not been sufficiently di- 
rected to the study of history, e^eciaUy the history of 
foreign cominonwealths. The Rules and Axioms deduci- 
ble from the Records of Nations, applied with common 
sense, can be relied with the same security as Experience. 
Republics however must learn from Republics. Any 
attempts to draw^ parallels bet\veen Republics and Mon- 
archies will lead to fallacious results. 

At the present time there is, besides the United States, 
but one real republic in the world, Nominal republics 
have arisen in abundance in the course of man's history, 
but the Federation of the Swiss cantons is the only one 
worthy to be named alongside of the great American ex- 
periment. The Spanish-American commonwealths are 
little better than anarchies. Of the three quasi European 
republics that existed before the French Revolution, all 
were extinguished by the arms of the first Napoleon. — 
Switzerland, however, still remains to bear witness on the 
Continent to the principles of self-government and the 
inextinguishable spirit of liberty. 

The failure of former republics or commonwealths, and 
the occasional license or sporadic excesses of liberal insti- 
tuticns, should neither discourage nor disgust thinking 
men. 

"Liberty," says Macaulay " resembles the Fairy of 
Ariosto who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was 
condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a 
foul and poisonous snake. Those who iujm-ed her during 
the period of her disguise, were forever excluded from 
participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But 
to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and 
protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beau- 



6 

tiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accom- 
panied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their 
houses with wealth, made them happy in love, and victo- 
rious in war. Such a Spirit is Libekty. At times she 
takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, 
she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall 
venture to crush her ! And happy are those who, having 
dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, 
shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her 
beauty and her glory.'" 

"There is only one cure for the evils which new acquir 
cd freedom produces — and that cure is freedom !'" 

Again, hear to him ! — 

"Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying 
it dowTi as a self evident proposition, that no people ought 
to be free till they are lit to use their freedom. The max- 
im is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not 
to go into the water till he had learned to swim ? If Men 
are to wait for Liberty till they hecome ivise and good in 
Slavery, they may indeed wait forever. "" 

Of the three European Republics, Holland, Venice and 
Genoa, destroyed by the great Kapgleo^t, that modern 
Attila, the fate of the first, Holland., is most sad to con- 
template. 

It would be wise for the people of these United States 
to reflect upon the results of partisan spirit and intestine 
conflicts in a country, which, while it occupied an almost 
imperceptible space upon an ordinary map of the world, 
but while it wa^ yet true to itself exercised the influence 
of a power of the first class, and like the duninutive-bod- 
ied but powerful polypn^, embraced and held fast the 
richest and remc»test regions in the tenacious grasp of its 
Briariaii anus. 



7 

Hollands armor of proof was torn open by the violence 
of her own political factions to receive the foreign thrust 
which deprived her of existence as a republic. 

It is painful even to read what exactions Holland suf- 
fered, at the hands of those who styled themselves her 
Emancipators. The result was, that a Commonwealth, 
which had planted its victorious banners, amid the roar 
of artillery, within the Arctic circle, when it fought the 
English off Spitzbergen ; which had blanched the cheeks 
of London with the broadsides of its triumphant navy, 
master of the Thames ; which had founded a New Am- 
sterdain on this continent, a polar Amsterdam in East 
Greenland, now Spitzbergen, and a Javanese Amsterdam, 
in the spice producing East ; which had kept the '"'■Feast 
of Kings''' in JS^ova ZemUa ; which had dotted the globe 
with its discoveries and acquisitions ; which had heaped 
a whole town La Cidade or Pavoassan, as a monument, 
upon the grave of a beloved admiral, under the equator ; 
which had governed a modern empii'e, Brazil, as a de- 
pendent colony ; which had chastised the Barbary Cor- 
sairs while still a terror to the mightiest monarchies ; 
which had held at bay the armies, and vanquished the 
united fleets of France and Britain ; fell from her place of 
pride and from a mighty republic, the arbitress of Europe, 
sunk into a third rate monarchy. From her misfortune, 
Davies, the elegant historian of the Dutch nation, deduces 
the following lesson — a lesson which should be thun- 
dered in the ears of our people in the public squares, and 
impressed upon their minds in the private circle — a lesson 
pregnant ^V^th significance to every American at this ter- 
rible epoch. 

"From her place of pride, among nations, HoUand has 
now fallen ; and in the history of her fall, may be read a 
useful, though melancholy lesson to every free and com- 



mercial people, to be on the watch lest tlwy mistake the 
heat of iKirty spirit, for the zeal of jyatriotiwi : and lest 
they seeTcfor national wealth as the exd, a-ad not as the 
MEANS, of national greatness.''^ 

Holland's catastrophe is but one additional proof that 
the disease, fatal to republics, never had its origin in ex- 
traneous causes, although the mortal blow maj have been 
eventually given from without. 

Some free states have perished like fruit, prematurely 
ripe, or ripe out of season, just as Hrss, Satanakola, and 
other Reformers suffered at the stake, because they were 
in advance of the age in which they lived, while Zwingli, 
Luther and Calvin survived to see their doctrines flourish 
having taken the times at the turn of the tide, or at the 
flood. From the failure of foreign and former republics, 
men have argued, that freedom in government is incom- 
patible with human existence, in great aggregations and 
developments, even as a congeries or family of confedera- 
ted republics. Switzerland has solved the problem on a 
small scale. The United States is now solving a similar 
problem on a grand scale. Woe to mankind, if we, the 
latter, fail to do our Duty. 

The Swiss Republic, in one respect, that is in their de- 
termined rejection of foreign interference in their domes- 
tic afi'airs, presented a perfect contrast to the Dutch. The 
result is, Switzerland exists in honored independence. 
Holland on the other hand, submitted to foreign interven- 
tion, and shorn of her liberty, subsists in comparative 
subservience. 

The Swiss absolutely refused, at any risl^ and at all 
times, to permit the slightest interference on the part of 
foreign governments, and when in 1847 they had estab- 
lished their blockade or cordon, they actually prohibited 
to foreign agents, all access to their rebel districts. And 



9 

while they were ready to mass their troops, to put down 
sedition at home, they were equally ready to mass their 
tfoops upon their frontiers, to prevent intervention from 
abroad. As an evidence to what exertions this patriotic 
spirit incited the people consider the case of the canton of 
Vaud. This canton has a population of 204,000 in an 
area of 11S5 square miles. Taking the usual ratio her 
regular contingent, permanently maintained, should not 
exceed 5,000 men, and her males capable of bearing arms, 
between 20 and 60, not over 50,000 men, for home service 
and under the most favorable circumstances. Neverthe- 
less, Oct. ?d, 1846, the same year that the Sondekbund 
promulgated their treasomable designs, this canton had 
nearly 20,000 men, belonging to the difterent services, 
armed and equipped according to regulation. Besides 
these, the authorities had organized 16 Battalions of "Hom- 
mes du Depot," garrison troops between 17 and 20 years 
of age, (each 500 strong,) and 8 battalions of Volunteers, be- 
tween the ages of 45 and 60, estimated as high as 6,000 in all: 
Total 34,000. The same proportion would give us 3,0C0,- 
000 of soldiers under arms, while the ability to bear the 
burthen can scarcely be brought into comparison. 

This proves that in whatever other respect the Swiss 
may have retrograded, they have not degenerated in pat- 
riotism. Mrs. SxErTT, in h.er charming volumes, entitled 
"A Domestic Residence in Switzerland," observes that 
"Xature certainly only tueant the Swiss for two classes, 
soldiers and shepherds." "Attached alilce to Liberty and 
io Arm.9, the slightest appearance of infringement upon 
their fi-eedom, throws them simultaneously into a posture 
of defence." 

"The great tie that holds the Swiss cantons together is 
the neutrality they obBerve, with respect to other natious ; 



10 

and the common cause they make of ant attach upon 
themselves y 

" 'Another admirable trait of essential union among 
the Swiss, is the willing and ready chaeity with which 
they minister to each others wants, in times of calamity,' 
'with a liberality that well illustrates the truth of a re- 
mark, which all who have studied mankind must have 
made, that it is always the habitually frugal, who are 
capable of the most generous actions." 



" Seek not the Swiss in cultured plains, 
Or towns, or beaten paths among, 
Where modish strangers idly throng, 
And luxury taints, and avarice stains : 
'Tis where primeval nature reigna, 
Mid lonely toil and simple song, 
Secure alike from crime and wrong, 
He uncorrupt and true remains ; 

'Mid the murmurings of his fountains. 
And the echoes of his mountains. 
Where the lordly eagle soars, 
Where the headlong torrent roars, 
He is, as he was meant to be. 
Poor and virtuous, calm and free." 



The prodigious effort of the little Canton of Yaud just 
alluded to, leads to the consideration of what would seem 
to be a want of sense of patriotic duty, in many of our 
own people. 

Through the ill judged interference of rich communities 
or associations, the administration is not deriving the ex- 
pected reinforcements from the draft just concluded. — 
That so many citizens arc unwilling to fight out, with 
their own arms, the great battle of freedom, but are will- 
ing to confide it to another race, and hireling hands, is 
im worthy of a free people, and teeming with mischief, if 
no remedy is at hand and applicable. 

I particularly allude to the organization of a dispropor- 
tionate army of blacks. Their undue augmentation is 
pregnant with evil, if not restricted within reasonable 



11 

limits. Not that I am opposed to negro regiments. Far 
from it, since I believe that I was the tirot, in print, to 
snggest their organization. But I am opposed to a negro 
army outnumbering tliat composed of wliites. Carthage^ 
Venice^ Holland, relied upon mercenaries to maintain 
their polity within, extend their area without, and fight 
even for their independence. Rome's mobilized militia 
burned Carthage', the native armies of France seized 
Venice^ and handed her over to Austria as a prey ; and 
Holland, dictated to by Prussia imdi England, (the latter 
as false to the United Provinces, as she has proved to the 
United States,) stooped her free neck to the yoke of roy- 
alty ; stooped it to be abased a second time, and plundered 
in 1830-'l, despite their own solemn guarantees, by Hng- 
land and France, just as England and ^««(?e would like 
to dismember, plunder and humiliate us. The rough edge 
of the w^ork may be taken off by our black auxiliaiies, but 
the finishing touches must be put on by ourselves, by 
our white brethren. 

Thus by the consideration of a succession of introduc- 
tory suggestions, having an important bearing on the sub- 
ject, I have reached in order the main object of my 
Address. 

It is remarkable that Switzerland, a few 3'ears ago, was 
called upon to pass through a crisis very similar to that 
through which the United States is now passing. As a 
Federation it is composed of Cantons of quite dissimilar 
religious faith and social tendencies. Some of them are 
Protestants and others are Romanists, and the political 
jealousies which arise are apt to be intensified, if we may use 
the expression, by the antagonism of a deep religious ran- 
cor. On most questions, however, the Federal Diet would 
move along evenly enough if these causes of difference 
were not worke^^l upon and fomented by dextrous, unre- 



13 

lenting and bigoted bodies of men, particularly by that 
known as the Jesuits. In political cunning, recklessness 
and energy, they are not unlike the southern disunion 
leaders ; and they are like them, ngain, in the fact that 
for many years they ■were constant plotters of Secession. — 
They were always striving to arouse the prejudices of the 
Romanist cantons, until they should formally declare their 
separation from the others and from the general union. 

Nor were foreign influences wanting to aggravate the 
internal difficulties. The Pope afforded aid by intrigues, 
carried on through his Nuncios, wdio incited the ignorant ^ 
mass. The secession party comprised the whole of that 
part of the population wliich, dwelling in wild and moun- 
tain districts, had not been affected by the improvements 
of the age. They resembled in these respects the great 
mass of the southern secessionists, who live apart from the 
civilizing influences of commerce and intellectual pursuits, 
Austria helped also, not by mere hints, but open threats 
of intervention. She supplied arms, ammunition, and 
even officers. The staff of the secessionists was chiefly 
composed of foreign officers. France, likewise, smuggled 
arms and ordnance stores into the disaffected districts. — 
All the governments with despotic tendencies, in fact, 
either openly or secretly supported the secessionists. — 
Even constitutional governments, with the exception of 
Englan d, gave the national party the cold shoulder. Thus 
abetted, a Sonderbnnd, as it Mas called, assembled for de- 
liberation in May, 1846, and promulgated their Secession- 
ist Confederacy. 

Members of the Vermont Historical Society and 
Citizens of the famed Green Mountain State, De- 
scendants of the Gkeen Mountain Boys who distinguish- 
ed themselves by their stern determination and intrepid 
enterprise in the times which tried men's souls, I shall 



13 

endeavor, npon this occasion, to show you how another 
people, Sons of the Mountains, met the question of Seces- 
sion. They met it as I liavc no doubt you would have 
met it, as all kueal JVcw England and rueal Kew York 
would have met it, had tliey stood alone, fair and square, 
face to fac?, even as previous generations in the same dis- 
tricts asserted their rights on the fields of Bexnixgton 
and OEisivA>;y, Stillwatee (Bemus' Heights) and Sara^ 
toga (Wilbur's Basin). 

Before entering into any examination of historical oc- 
currences, or of military operations whicli have taken 
place in Switzerland, a few reinarl;s are pertinent to cor- 
rect a popular error in regard to the defensibleness, j!?er 5^, 
of that country, and, in fact, of any country presenting a 
similar physical aspect siu-h as Vrede'rn Virginia, Ten- 
nessee and Georgia. The plains of Italy and the levels 
of the Low Countries have been scareelv more fouo-ht 
over t];an the diversities and alternations of Switzerland. 
ZscnoKKE, aGernian by birthbut a Swiss by election, in 
his history of his adopted country, remarks that in its wars 
of the last 500 years, but particularly those growing out 
of the great French Revolution, " battle field touched 
battle field ;" that " horse and man (contending) passed 
over the mountain tops, whicli the chamois hunter alone 
had reached before;" that "in the valleys and on the 
summits of the mountains, on the lakes and above the 
clouds, the French and Anstrians fought." 

Surrounded by powerful, ambitious, and military mon- 
archies, Switzerland for centuries has been the "Valley of 
Decision," and the iron-heel of war has left its mark upon 
her snowy wastes, her vine clad slopes, her sunny valleys, 
and her romantic lake and I'iver shores. From the sum- 
mit of every Alp, deemed accessible, seventy years since, 
to man, to the bottom of her defiles, there is scarcely a 



14 

district that has not been drenched -with the blood of na- 
tive and of foi-eign soldiery, recruited from almost every 
known region of Europe, Asia and northern Africa. 

According to the hypothetical strategy of the newspa- 
pers and of the masses, j^ositions in mountain ranges and 
mountainous countries, militarily occupied, are considered 
impregnable. "Whereas it is a military axiom, established 
by the experience of all ages, that he who is master of 
the valleys is master of the mountains, for, although the 
mountains may not be susceptible of successful direct 
attack, they may be paralyzed by the cutting oif of com- 
munications and concjuered h\ blockade and famine. — 
This is indisputable except, in some rare cases, where 
mountain districts contain, or produce, within themselves 
supplies of ammunition, food and forage.* 

Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this is Fred- 
eric the Great's operations against the impregnable Camp 
of Refuge at Pirna, in Saxony, in 1756. Master of the 
communications and victorious over the Austrian army, 

* This remarkable fact, so seldom considered,— that the possession or master- 
ship of the valleys determines the fate of mountains,— indicates the Kcnts or GashcB 
in the apparentl}- invulnerable armor of an Alpine land. Through the Gaps ly 
which tiie torrent finds escape, the eneni)- finds entrance. They ofier to tl.e 
invader breaches through which his columns can advance against the Penetralia 
of Liberty. Even as the treacherous arrow of the Trojan Adulterer, Paris, found 
its way, through the undipped heel, to the life of the otherwise invulnerable Achilles, 
even 60 the enemy finds access, by its Passes or Cols (depressions of the mountain 
crest lines into the interior of an elevated country), not only in arms but with the 
more fatal lures of trade and the blandishments of luxury. 

The very Configuration of Switzerland and the disposition of its natural ramparts 
indicate, upon the map, the breaches through which its enemies have forced thtir 
way. n is least defensible towards the North and North-East. From those quar- 
ters the m.ijority of the invasions have occurred. Happily for the Confederation 
its lofty barren mountains inclose luxuriant vineyards, meads and fields, furnishing 
vast supplies for men and c;ittle. On tlie other hand the Protestants of Lausjucdoc, 
who held at bay for years the vast power of Louis XIV, occupied a territory rc- 
Bcmbling Switzerland in its capabilities for defence, but not analogous in its 
interior feature? of productiveness. The War of the Cevennes demonstrated what 
determined Few, although unprepared, can achieve, for a time, against the Many 
provided with all sufficient mc.ius. There is a period, however, to all such efforts 
which i* beyond the control of any wii.i,. howover resolute. As Ion;,' ap they had 



15 

Beeking to relieve the Saxon forces, he compelled the 
latter to surrender at discretion, in about 37 days. Nev- 
ertheless Firna^per se, was impregnable. We will see that 
the same rule has always held good with regard to Switz- 
erland, and that, throughout the hiatorj of the Confed- 
eration, its fate has not been decided on its rugged Alps 
or in its mountain Thermopylae's, but in its gladsome 
valleys, those depressions which give access to the interior 
of the country, and are traversed by the main-routes be- 
tween the capitals or chief towns ol;' the Cantons. 

Strange it is, but still as true as strange, the Arts of 
"War and the Arts of Peace are subject to the same 
immutable laws of progress. Water, "Wealth and War 
seek the same channels for their fertilizing streanjs or de- 
vastating floods. They equally shun the rugged heights 
and seek the fertile plains, for they are mutually depend- 
ent. Battle fields invariably occur in localities which 
have the same relations to the Operations of War which 
towns or the sites of great fairs bear to the tides of Travel 
and Commerce. The result is that as Holland opposed 
dykes of granite, oak and concrete to the inroads of the 



the means to support life, the Camisarrts of .Joiix Cavaliep. continued masters of 
their mountain fastnesses, and proved victorious .igainst astonishing odds of men 
and material. When at length want obliged them to descend into the plains in 
search of supplies, they wore overwhelmed by the disciplined masses of their roy- 
alist persecutors. Decimaicd through the efTorts and efl'ects of their own valor, 
they were at length coinpcllcd to retreat. Close upon them followed death and 
desolation, for the King's forces laid everj-thing in rnins and ashes as they ad- 
vanced. Thus a desert closed in upon the Huguenot heroes like the iron walls of 
the Italian tyrants daily diminishing dungeon, until, at last, all within the cncom- 
passingand converging columns of the invader was crushed into submissive formless- 
ness in respect to rights or religion and to individual or general security. Schamtl, 
in like manner, as the Protestants of the Ccvcnnes, found his Circassian strong, 
holds assailed by Russian armed floods surging up through the Circassian valleys 
which opened to the lowlands and to the sea, commanded by the Czaric fleets. 

Just so, the Deluges of Asiatic barbarism which overwhelmed Eastern and Cen- 
tral Europe followed the levels of the rivers, and burst in upon Cliristianity and 
Civilizution through the depressions of the border ranges, through which Com- 
merce had found linos of communication, proving that the Traffic and Strife, both 
bearing with them good and evil, in very unequal proportions however, tread the 
»me tracks either to blcas or blast. 



18 
ocean, so Switzerland dammed her valleys against the in- 
vasions of multitudinous enemies with ranks of iron men, 
60 that it might be said of HelvetIxI as of the Spaeta of 
Agesilaus and the Sw^eden of the Yasas, "She did not 
defend her men wntli walls, but her walls with her men." 

Although the swarthy crisp-haired veterans of Hanni- 
bal picked and fought their way through the icy terrors 
of Mount Genevre (or the Little St. Bernard?); — 

Although the Emperor Majorian, sounding the depths 
of the drifts with the staif of his lance, indicated, in mid- 
winter, the track for the march of his legions, fresh from 
battling with the savage Moors and Yandals, across the 
Graian Alps, to the conquest of Gaul, Spain and 
Africa ; — • 

Although Francis I, tui^.neled the Monte Yiso, far 
under its perpetual snow, deeming the very rocks less 
impervious thsn the ranks of their Waleensian defenders, 
on his way to that '' Coinbat oi Giants," Marigi ano ; — 

Although the veteran Freundsbekg threaded the hor- 
rible snow depths and yawniug ravines of the Yal Sabbia, 
at the head of that " Arnn- of Yengeance" which repaid 
itself, with the accumulated gold of papal jubilees, for 
the spiritual tyranny and humiliations whicli Germany 
had experienced at the hands of the Popes ; — 

Although Prince Eugene transported " in a fearful 
and marvellous march,-' with the help of mechanical 
contrivances, his infantry, cavalry, and even artillery', 
through the frighti'ul Yal Suga and Yal Fredda, hitherto 
de3m2d inaccessible, to rescue his patrial Savoy from the 
closing grasp of the French spoiler; — 

Although the Muscovites, under the barbarian Suwae- 
Row, trampled the eternal snow of the St. Gothard and 
rc})lac:d the Devil's Bridge with trunks of trees k.shed 
together with his officers' military sashes ; — 



17 

Although the Gallic demi-brigades of Napoleon trod 
into slush the everlasting snow of the Great St, Bernard, 
hurrying forward to his greatest victory, Marengo ; — 

Although the exhilarating music of Macdonald's mili- 
tary bands excited his French divisions to charge the 
falling avalanches of the Splugen as if they had been 
columns of mortal adversaries ; — 

Although I say from the days of the Carthaginian 
Arch-strategist to those of the Conqueror of Solferino^ 
horse, foot, elephants, cannon and military equipages 
have fought their way, across the Alps, to victory, by the 
tracks of the hunter and the paths of the goat-herd ; — 

Although cavalry and artillery have charged upon fields 
of ice, above the clouds, and answered, amid the mingled 
wreaths of vapor and powder-smoke, the electric batteries 
of nature with their batteries of human invention ; — yet 

The fate of Switzerland has not been decided in her 
elevated mountain passes and upon her hoary Alps, but 
in her smiling valleys and along the shores of those lakes, 
which were alive with a semi-aquatic population, living 
in huts elevated on piles above their waters, anterior to 
the age of bronze and iron, and while her mountains 
were yet devoid of inhabitants. 

In one respect, however, mountainous countries are 
impregnable. Territories, like those of the Swiss, are 
inexpugnable in the race of men which grow up amid 
the sublimity of their scenery. " Solitude," says the 
philosophic prose-poet, Dora d'Istria, " is the mother of 
great ideas." We add, Sublimity is certainly their father 
in minds susceptible of quickening. 

The mountain race, endowed with vigorous minds in 
healthy bodies, seejns everywhere gifted with an in- 
domitable repnlntion, as rugged and flinty as the rocks 



18 
thev have to climb and labor among in the pm'suit oi 
their livelihood. 

Moreover, jubt as we recognize an elevated region by its 
stnrdy growth of peculiar timber, whether stunted or 
lofty, alike in their powder of resisting the tempest, and by 
its hardy plants, characterized by their intense tenacity of 
life, just so a mountainous country is indicated by a stur- 
dy, courageous, athletic, well developed or close knit l)op- 
ulation of liberty-loving, patriotic men. 

During the American Revolution it was the moun- 
taineers of Eastern Tennessee, South-Eastern Kentucky, 
and Western North, and South, Carolina, who stemmed 
the tide of British conquest in the Southern ])rovinces, al- 
though led by its ablest and boldest }>artisan, l)ull-dog 
Ferguson. When the South Carolinian oligarchic chiv- 
alry and its aristocracy, rich in human chattels, had 
entirely succumbed, it was the energy, sagacity and self 
reliance of the Mountain Men^ accustomed to manual 
labor and exercised in their contests with savage beasts 
and still more savage men, which restored affairs and 
even hope, by their unexpected success, upon the bloodiest 
scene of Southern battle, the ever memorable Kings 
Mountain. 

Just so, in this very State, Gentlemen, J^eio Manvpshire 
and Vermont troops, under the simple but intrepid Stark, 
ratified ?ii Bennington., the great fundamental principle of 
government, that neither the Green Mountain region, nor 
any other region, should be the home of any but free-men. 
The same spirit inspired the rough but patriotic Allen, 
when he laid his iron grasp upon Ticonderoga " in the 
name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." 
The same spirit, with its impulse as potential as the shrill 
note of the Abyssinian trumpet, styled the Cry of th« 



10 
Eagle, wliose electric eftectis dwelt upon \)\ the traveller 
Bruce, as marvellous to witness, aroused Vermont to 
arms at the commencement of the pending contest. 

The Voice of the same Spirit, resounding through the 
Green Mountains, as irresistibly as the appeal of the 
Mountain Horn or Bull of Uri, whose terrible roar re- 
sembled the bellowing of the enraged Urus, and of the 
hoarse Land Horn of Untericalden, — whose signals struck 
terror to the enemies of Switzerland who had experienced 
their effects, — summoned together, and urged forth, under 
such leaders as John "Wolcott Phelps, a magnificent 
array, exceeding in numbers the proportionate quota of 
your State, small in area and population, however great 
in virtues, a contingent, far more excessive in tlie quality 
of its soldiers, to fight the great fight of freedom, upon 
the soil, which the treason of a slavocrat-oligarchy sought 
to usurp and subject to the fatal influences of slaverj-, — 
hoping to build, there, upon the i-uins of our free institu- 
tions, an aristocracy based upon tlieir ownership in man. 

Even as your lovely state is intersected by fertile val- 
leys, watered by such beautiful streams as the Winooski, 
MissisQui, and White Eiver, whose banks afford easy 
transit to the iron horse dragging long trains, freighted 
with the spoils of commerce and of agriculture, even so 
Switzerland is cleft and checkered by connecting depres- 
sions, the basins of its chains of lakes, gleaming like dia- 
monds or sapphires amid the cloud-crowned mountains, 
snow-capped peaks, elevations robed in ever verdant fol- 
iage, and glaciers spectral in their ice, when not glorious, 
like Iris, in the sunshine. 

It is these very velvet pastures and rich meadows, bath- 
ed by the Swiss lakes and their tributaries, so dear to the 
tourist, the agriculturist and the herdsman, which have 



'20 
afforded fields of manoBuvre and battle to the chivalry of 
the iiu'aders, seeking to enslave their possessors. Upon 
such slopes and meadows, most of the Swiss battles of 
their wars of independence have been decided. Such 
depressions, alone, have offered stages for the vast conflicts, 
which have occurred from time to time, during the last 
600 years, whence the thundering antagonism of the ar- 
tillery, reverberating through the encompassing moun- 
tains, have jarred loose the dreadful avalanches to respond 
Avith the still more terrible echo of their fall, to the roar 

of the contending hosts below. 

* * ^ -A- * «■ * 

In the progress of our consideration of this subject — 
Swiss /Secession — it appears to me that this w^ould be the 
proper time, before proceeding farther, or entering upon 
the narrative of actual hostilities, to trace out the origin 
of the difficulty by a bi'ief examination of the History of 
the Helvetian Ttepublic. 

The Swiss Confederation^ born, 1291, in the Associa- 
tion of the Three Forest Cantons, on the Lake of Lucerne^ 
grew, in 1352, to Eight by gradual aggregations. Bap- 
tised in blood and fire, to use a military expression, it 
already constituted, in the XlVth Century, a strong 
family of small republics. 

These had gained over Austria a series of victories, 
whose parallels cannot be found in history. Still, al- 
though it had vanquished the empire, its arch enemy 
without, it could not overcome enemies almost as dan- 
gerous, although not so apparent, within ; the blemishes, 
cruelties and vices of its interior administration. The 
tyranny of oligarchs had been permitted to succeed that 
of feudalism. Spiritual foundations still held the fortunes, 
rights, and what was far worse, the minds of their sub- 
cctp in the fetters of superstition and ignorance. The 



L>1 

terrible yoke of caste huni>- heavily upon the population, 
and nothing but the diricipline, as it were, of a frontier 
post, exposed to the danger of attack at any moment, 
kept the different populations of Freedom^ Citadel^ in 
Central Europe, from flying at each other's throats upon 
the least occasion. The exciting cause of disunion has 
ever been the same as that which lately stirred up Swiss 
Secession, — the intrigues of the Church of Rome, of 
its allies, of its affiliations and of its dependencies, in a 
word the lltkamontajs^e or eeactioxist party, not inaptly 
represented, in this country, by the Slayocrats and their 
abettors. 

In 1444, France succeeded Austria as the antagonist of 
Freedom and of the Cantons, and met with such a bloody 
reception at St. Jacob on the Birs, on the very threshold 
of the confederation, that, thenceforward, until her own 
great Revolution, the French rulers were willing rather 
to huy the amity than lo provoke the enmity of the Swiss. 

Unwilling or incapable of profiting by the experience 
of the astute Lons XI, his opponent, Charles the Rash 
of BuEGrNDY, determined to try his hand at oppressing 
Switzerland. Burgundy, although a feudal duchy, was, 
yet, at that time, a kingdom in power and influence, al- 
though its sovereign wore only a ducal coronet. More- 
over, the army with its train of artillery and equipages, 
which, twice renewed and twice entirely ruined, Charles 
poured over the Jura into what was then the Canton of 
Berxe, would be termed magnificent even at the present 
dav. Two defeats, so marvellous and overwhelminff, 
that nothing but the more recent routs of Rosbach, 
Leuthen, Jena, the annihilation of the whole French 
expedition to Moscow, Waterloo and Novara, could 
justify belief in the disasters which shipwrecked the 



22 
lame, the power and the armies of Burgundy. A third 
victory, I^ancy, in 1477, cost the magnificent Charles 
his life. 

At this period of triumph, in 1481, Soleure and Fuey- 
bukg, contrasts in their after political conduct, were ad- 
mitted into the Confederation as the ninth and tenth 
Cantons. 

Despots and kings, and, in fact, political administrations 
of everj texture, never appear to learn wisdom from the 
past. To impose the Austrian yoke, upon the Ten Cantons, 
which his ancestors could not impose upon three, or upon 
FOUR, or upon eight, the German Emj^eror took the field 
in person. 

Defeated by the Swiss in not less than eight battles in 
the course of as many months, Maximilian resolved upon 
peace. He had lost over twenty thousand men and seen 
nearly two thousand towns, villages and castles laid in 
ashes to satisfy' his ambitious attempts upon liberty. — 
Peace accordingly was concluded at Basle, September 
22d, 1409. Thus ended the SuaUan, tlie last war of 
Swiss independence. TJiese Avars had di-agged out 
througli two hundi'ed and one years. The American 
AVars of Independence, if we consider, as many do, the 
"War of the Revolution as the First or Inceptive, and the 
War of 1812 as the Second or Decisive, forty-tive years. 
The first blood shed in the American Revolution, was 
not in King's Street, Boston, March 5th, 1770, nor at 
Lexington, April 19th 1775, but on Golden Hill, in 
John Street, in Xew York City, January 18th 1770, 
preceding by two months, the first New England martyr- 
dom for liberty. The last conllict to establish our complete 
independence of Great Britain Avas at N"ew Orleans, 
.lanuarv Sth, J 8 Li. 



23 

The tirst struggle of the Swiss Revulntion was on the 
DoNNEKiiUiiL (Thunder Hill) and in tlie Jannnerthal (Yale 
of Tears), appropriate names, in 1298 ; the last victory at 
DoKNACH iu 1499. It mnst be conceded the Swiss had 
a harder fight, against greater odds, for their Freedom, than 
we, Americans, for ours. AVhat is acquired with great diffi- 
culty is highly esteemed. The Swiss have maintained 
their freedom and consolidated their unity. AVill we 
emulate their example '( 

From that Treaty of Basle dates, properly speaking, the 
complete independence of Switzerland, which then ceased 
to be subjected to the sovereignty of the empire — a state 
of things ^vhich was sanctioned by the Peace of West- 
phalia, in 1(348. 

The French War, of 1444, had been a mere August 
thunder shower, fierce enough, however, while it lasted ; 
the Burgundian War, of 1475-'6-'7, a succession of torna- 
does ; the Suabian AVar, 1499, was a regular, furious 
storm, but the Cantons sustained the ^'iulence of all three 
as the Alps meet the FceJui and the Bue., two . furious 
winds peculiar to Switzerland, whose blasts accomplish 
nothing but to purify the air. 

In 1501, Basle and ScnAFFHAUSE^^ were admitted as 
the eleventh and twelfth, and in 1515, Appenzell as the 
last Canton necessary to complete the list of the Jirst 
Thirteen^ exactly the number of the British Provinces 
which transmuted themselves into the original Thirteen 
United States. 

Of these Thirteen three were Aristo-Democratic. The 
first of these was Zurich, afterwards the home of liberal 
ideas and the cradle of the Reformation. In considera- 
tion of the wealth and importance of the City of Zurich, 
the others yielded to it the first place in order of rank, 



24 
and it lias ever since borne the title, although it long since 
lost the prerogative, of the first Canton of the Helvetic 
body. This privilege, however, gave Zurich no supe- 
riority over the rest, but merely constituted it as a central 
point, where all the affairs, which concerned the whole 
confederation, were transacted ; its deputies had also for 
a time the precedency in the general diets. 

Of the other two, the most important, Basle, was then 
what it proved in the last Swiss Secession War, neither 
cold nor hot, as we shall see hereafter, looking only, like 
all commercial emporiums, to its own selfish interests. 

Of the four Aristocratic Cantons, Berne was subse- 
quently, 1798 — 1803, divided into four, and afterwards 
became one of the most Liberal or Democratic^ perhaps, 
for the same reason, that Samson became weak. Her 
extensive dependencies, like his long locks, the sources of 
her strength, having been shorn off by the very reactionary 
power, whose influences adverse to Liberty, had laid her 
to sleep. 

Two others, Lucekne and Feetbukg, have always been 
the enemies of progress, and completely in the hands of 
those whose interests it was to keep the people bigoted 
and ignorant. In 1782, Freyburg was the closest aristoc- 
racy or rather oZ«<7a/'<?A?/ in all Switzerland, and one of the 
most bigoted. Latterly, it scarcely ceded to Lucerne in 
that regard. 

The fourth, Soleuke, situated in the valley of the Aar^ 
has been liberalized in a measure by the commerce and 
travel, foreign especially, flowing through it. 

The six Democratic Cantons hardly exceeded in area 
or population either of the Aristocratic ; in wealth there 
was no comparison, .lealoua of their own liberties, they 
had little respect for the liberties of others where those 



25 

liberties conflicted with their own political prejudices 
and religious bigotry. This always led them to become 
members of each successive Secession League — (for every 
secession League was formed to arrest Liberality in Senti- 
ment and Politics,) — and become the Associates of 
Coalitions with Despotic tendencies. It is singular 
that the rule which governs unions between parties, 
the most dissimilar in their habits and feelings, but 
identical in apparent interests, holds good not only 
in private life, in marriages, but in public life, in na- 
tional alliances. Witness our owm predilections for 
the Russian government, the most despotic in Europe, 
while yet we were on the closest terms of amity with 
Enrjland^ and in numerous other instances. Even auto- 
cratic Romanist France was preferred to constituti^ial 
Protestant Great Britain. 

Besides these, there were subject Bailiwicks^ and 
Confederate States, known as Socii, Associates or Allies, 
subsequently, from time to time, embraced within the 
limits of the present twenty two Cantons. Three Aristo- 
Democratic, four Aristocratic and six Democratic Cantons 
constituted this Alliance, rather than actual Confederation 
of Thirteen States, which bound together by a general 
alliance, were still not, in all cases, allied to each other. 
Incongruous as it was in many respects, it lasted never- 
theless, with modifications, but no essential changes down 
to the end of the XVIIIth Century. From 1516 to 1718, 
from the time when Zwixgli commenced to preach the 
gospel, when as yet the name of Luther had never been 
heard of in Alpine districts, — that is from the inception of 
the Reformation in Switzerland, down to the religious 
Peace of Aarau, — was a period of continual intestine strug- 
gles, excited and instigated by the same religious jealousies, 
oppressions and antipathies ; demons which have only 



beeu laid by the magic of tlie bword within six years. 

From the Peace of Aarau, in 1712, (wliich is generally 
credited to 1718, since the Abbot of St. Gall did not 
accede to it until six years after its agreement,) down to 
1798, the Cantons enjoyed the blessings of seventy nine 
years of comparative repose. In the winter of 1797-'8y 
the French troops invaded the Cantons. This year, 1798, 
Lavater styled the first year of Swiss Slavery^ which 
may be said to have lasted fifteen to seventeen years. In 
1798, the old confederate bond was loosed by the French. 
It had stood the strain of four hundred and ninety years ; 
in seventy four days it ^vas now dissolved. 

The cantons which composed the lirst Association of 
the Xlllth Century contained the germs of future diffi- 
culties, similar to those which existed in a dormant state 
within our own confederation from its inception. These 
seeds of discord were sufficiently apparent in the country 
to occasion more prophecies of our present contest than 
those emitted by Loed Coleraine and by Burke, within 
a few years after the adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion. In Switzerland the remnant of abuses, privileges 
oppressions, as old as the organization of its primitive 
government, had a great deal to do with Secession, but 
in both countries, which it has cursed, the object "was the 
same — the aggrandizement of a governing caste of aristo- 
cratic and spiritual oligarchs at the expense of their fellow 
men. In Switzerland, as in America, a dominant class 
sought to impose their yoke not only upon matter but 
upon mind. 

Although Secession, visibly, dates back only to Cal- 
houn, in 1832, when it bore the title of Nullification, 
it nevertheless existed, as a latent idea, in the shape of 
State Rights in the minds of many of those who signed 
the first Act of our Confederation. Just so in Switzer- 



- 1 
land. The Ket'ormatioii was Auti-ISlavery in intent ; the 
dominant church tlien Pro-Slavery in effect. The result 
was a SoxDERBUND or Secession spirit, which like some 
chronic diseases, assumed more or leis violent phases under 
mitigating or aggravating circumstances. The exciting 
canse in the Sonderbund cantons, the seat of the difficulty 
or the organ affected, was never radi(;ully cured, although 
the remedies applied were sufficiently active or effectual to 
restrain the disease within certain limits. Finally foreign 
influence, like malarious air, against which Zwingli boldly 
sounded the alarm, developed the latent sentiment into 
contagious virulence. 

Meanwhile, peglect on the part of the family physician 
the Federal Diet, permitted the difficulty to gain such 
a head that the cure required a medicine, (artillery pills, 
and bayonet lancets,) so violent in itself, that had the 
applications failed to effect a prompt cure, the practice 
would have destroyed the life of the patient, the Swiss 
Confederate <yn. 

Still another brief recapitulation of some events ap- 
pears necessary at this time to make this question or anal- 
ogy more intelligible. Secession, in Switzerland, was no 
more a iievi idea in 18-i6-'47 than it was in the United 
States, in 1860-'61. In 1528, the Legislature of Berne 
issued an Edict of Keligious Reformation, in Thirteen 
Articles, founded on a truly Evangelical basis. This 
spiritual reform had just the same effect then, as the 
politico-spiritual ameliorations of the present century, 
particularly those called for between 1840 and 1847. — 
The Bernese regulations, conceived in a spiri^ of justice, 
charity and liberality, gave rise, in the ISTovember 
of the same year, to the League of the Valais, 
or SoNDEBBFND of the five Romanist Cantons and 
the confederate State of the Yalais for the defence of the 



28 
Romanist faith. Feeybtirg joined the league afterwards. 
In this Sepaeate League we have the identical Sonder- 
hund of 1847, excited by the very same canses, and 
influenced by the same objects. Wliat renders the re- 
semblance more striking is, that just as the hereditary 
enemy of Switzerland, Ferdinand of Austria^ was ad- 
mitted as a member of the Alliance of 1528, just so 
Austria was the power and Austrian princes the agents 
on which the treasonable alliance of 1846-'7 especially 
relied for material support. "This alliance startled the 
other Cantons. Alarm filled men's minds. They sung 
the personal complaint everywhere : — 

" Wail Helvetians, Wail, 

For the Peacock's plume of Pride 
To the Forest Canton's savage Bull 
In Friendship is allied." 

To parry the eifects of this Separate League, Zurich and 
Berne and other Reformed districts entered into what 
they called a Christian Co-buegheeship, in 1529, to wliich 
SchaffJiausen and Basle virtually acceded, in the follow- 
ing year, 1530. Three Cantons, divided within themselves, 
remained more or less neutral. In the array of parties, 
and in the condition of affairs in the XYIth Century, we 
have a perfect type of what occurred in the XlXth. The 
eame antagonism has occurred with a greater or less re- 
Bemblancc more than once since between those eras, but 
in 1530, Switzerland presented a perfect picture of the 
Status of Romanism and Retrograde Tendencies, of Protes- 
tantism and Liberal Progression, and of selfish Neutrality, 
in exactly the same proportions, as occurred three hundred 
and seventeen years later. 

The first 'great French revolution wiiich did so much 
harm, accomplished, nevertheless, an immense deal of 
good. The decree of the French Directory declaring that 
tlie Swiss Confederation had ceased to exist, and organ- 



29 
izing Switzerland into a single republic with a central 
government, was not without its beneficial eftects. The 
Fi'encli revolution commenced that process of amalga- 
mation, which the triumph over Secession in 1847 carried 
another step forward. It crushed Switzerland into some- 
thing like a nationality which was a comparative blessing. 
It swept away castes and privileges, and substituted its 
own great despotism for the petty tyrannies previously 
existing. It failed because it lacked the true religious 
element, that is the religious element of the Bible, as 
many who watched its operations predicted, on account 
of that very omission, that it would fail. 

"You may call a Republic of ITnl3elievers free, but that 
republican form confers no Liberty ; it may give scope to 
Licentiousness, but it can confer no Liberty. The land 
in which the mass rules is not a free land ; that is the 
Home of Freedom where Truth rules. That is no trxLe 
Democracy in wdiich all are on a level merely ; the trxLe 
democracy is that in which all are Brothers — some elder, 
some younger, but all helping one another. A democracy 
is impossihle on any other than. Christian principles.'''' 

Can any one deny that the masses in Europe are not ' 
better off to-day than they were before the French Revo- 
lution? No sensible unprejudiced men would dare to do 
eo. The outrages upon humanity then daily practiced 
by a dominant aristocracy and spiritual hierarchy are 
heard of no more. There are no more public or legalized 
tortures, there are no more dragonades, there are no more 
iudicial murders like that of Calas, at Toulouse, except 
in districts where the mind is still subjected to that yoke 
and frenzied by that goad, which brought about Swiss 
Secession, a spirit twin to that which occasioned our own 
Rebellion. We shudder at the wrongs inflicted upon our 
slaves. But if we are to believe Yulliehii^ and other 



* « 



30 
autlientic liistorians of Switzerland, the yoke of the negro 
was in the majuritj of cases lighter than that imposed by 
a dominant clergy and aristocracy npon their fellow 
whites. They speak of executions preceded l^y tortures 
whicli terrifieJ the imagination, of mutilations and in- 
justice worthy of the annals of Naples and of the Inquisi- 
tion. A reader is tempted to throw down the book 
sliocked at the recital of man's inhumanity to man. If 
any one questions these charges let him examine the 
Countess Doka D'Isteia's "Switzerland, the Pioneer of 
the Reformation," and her authorities. 

All that was good in the French Ee volution, its liberal 
elevating and regenerating influences can be traced to 
the operation of that Spirit which proclaimed release to 
the captive, quickened the Reformation, and declared 
that '' where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty," — 
that Spirit v/hose purest modern exponent was Zwingli, 
the Sv/iss Reformer of Zumcn. 

The horrors of the French Revolution were not its 
necessary or inevitable results. " Insensate resistance," 
Dora D'Isteia j-emarks in her German Switzerland, 
" compels Revohitionists to pass beyond the goal they 
would have been satisfied to reacli. "Were not the un- 
ceasing conspiracies of the clergy and of the aristocracy, 
and their dishonorable alliance with foreigners, the chief 
causes of the excesses of the French Revolution ?" 

Bat to resume the regular narrative of events in Switz- 
erland since 1795, which were interrupted by the preced- 
ing reinark'r. 

In 1801, a Diet, assembled at Rerne, proclaimed a 
Confederation of XVII Cantons with a central Federal 
government, in that city. 

In 1 803. Bonaparte promulgated his Act of Mediation, 



31 

constituting Switzerland into a Confederation of XIX 
Cantons, with separate local governineuts and a Federal 
Diet for the whole. 

In 1S14, the Deputies of the majority of tlie Cantons, 
assembled at Ziu'ich, proclaimed the Independence of the 
XIX Cantons as then existing. In this year the Yalais, 
Neufchatel, and (teneva, were admitted as three new 
Cantons making the total, as at present, XXII. 

In 1815 the Allied Powers, at the Congress of Vienna, 
acknowledged the Independence and Perpetual Neutral- 
ity of Switzerland, and a new Federal Compact of the 
XXII Cantons was sworn to in the Diet, at Zurich, in 
the August of that year. 

The French Convention, and its successor the Directory, 
which transmuted the Seven United Provinces of Holland 
into the Bataviau Republic (in 1795), the states of North- 
ern and Central Italj'^ into the Cisalpine Republic (in 
1797,) and Southern Italy into the Parthenopeian Repub- 
lic, (in 1798,) about the same time crushed together the 
Thirteen Swiss Cantons into the Helvetian Repulilic, 
(1797). Upon the final fall of Napoleon, Switzerland 
existed in a Bond of XXII Cantons, and, as such, it was 
recognized by the Congress of Vienna, which guaranteed 
its independence and perpetual Neutrality. 

With the restoration of Switzerland's independence, 
recommenced the machinations of all those who were 
opposed to Liberal Institutions. Immediately again the 
disciples of Metternich and Talleyrand, sought to reunite 
the severed and tangled skein of intrigues, fomented by 
their predecessors, guiding spirits of the surrounding 
monarchical and despotic powers. Jealous of the existence 
of a successful Free State in their midst, Austria, France, 
and, in a much less degree, Prussia, had no sooner signed 
the guarantees of Swiss Independence, than they set to 



32 

work to undermine it, and to divide the people, in tlie hope 
of annexing or appropriating any seceding or dissatisfied 
district, as they nearly succeeded in doing in 1816-7. 
It is greatly to be regretted that the limits of an Address 
precluded a more detailed examination of that Struggle 
between Imperial and Papal Despotism, and comparative 
Freedom, which lasted from the first years of the XVI 
Century, to the Peace of Aarau (Argovia,) 1718 ; that 
struggle between spiritual darkness, and evangelical light 
which characterized the era of Zwingli, Luther and Cal- 
vin. That conflict between Lay and Ecclesiastical Ai-is- 
tocracy and Oligarchy and Democracy, which began 
with the beginnings of the Confederation, endured from 
the loth Century, down to the Congress of Vienna, and 
was renewed, with almost equal bitterness, after Switzer- 
land had recovered, at it were, her equilibrium, until, at 
length, enflamed by spiritual avidity for power, it blazed 
up into the Sonderbund troubles of 1810, and ended with 
the triumph of Republicanism, and the short, sharp, deci- 
sive, shattering triumph of the Liberals, Loyalists or 
Federalists, over Secession, in 1847. 

Suffice it to say, that after the Recognition of the XXII 
Cantons, 20th March, 1815, — the renewed struggle of 
thirty years, between Swiss retrogradists, and progres- 
sionists, was characterized by a bitterness, which, in all 
likelihood, would have deterred many of our politicians 
from taking the stump, and embroiling public affairs. — 
They would have restricted their enthusiasm to safer 
occupations than statescraft, had they seen in the near 
future the Axe of the Headsman, and the Gyves of the 
Felon, as the almost certain rewards, in case of failure, 
of their interested endeavors. If the mountain begets 
fervor and fearless energy, it also begets ferocity and fierce 



33 

zeal, even to the shedding of blood. Let us thank God, 
that hitherto we have been spared the sights of scaff<jlds, 
erected for those who have outraged the majesty of the 
constitution, instead of witnessing, as in Switzerland, the 
bloody block, and the grim headsman holding up the 
dripping head of the executed rebel. 

The eflbrts at Nullification, in every regard, which 
began to show" themselves in Switzerland, immediately 
upon the fall of Napoleon, were the origin of the Swiss 
Separate, or Secession League, (^oilbcrbunb.) ''The 
Separate League," said M. Druey, Deputy of Vaud, "is a 
continuation of the Reactionary Movement, of 1802: of 
the Anti-national Intrigues of the Waldshut Committee (in 
1812-'13); of the Aristocratic Enterprises of 1S13-'14-'15; 
of the Conspiracy of 1832 ; of the iBarnen League in 1833 ; 
and of the Reaction effected in some Cantons since 1839, 
and attempted in others. That League would fain invade 
all the States of the Confederation." 

Just as this Reaction in religit>us and political matters, 
permitted in certain Cantons, sought to invade and rule 
in more Liberal Cantons, just so Slavery endeavored to 
invade the Free States and impose and continue a suc- 
cession of corrupt administrations upon owvfi'ee North. 

For thirt}'^ two years, Switzerland presented two hostile 
camps, which rested their extremities on foreign lands, 
and which attempted reciprocally to weaken each other, 
by the withdrawal of adherents. An attitude gradually 
more resolute and bolder was the result of these separate 
alliances. 

According to the opinion of a writer, whose Christian 
sympathies and learning entitle her to reliance, the origin 
of the quarrel which brought these two camps into col- 
lision was the Suppression of the Convents of Argovia or 



34 

Aargau for taking part in political disturbances, in 1841, 
on the motion of a Member of the Diet of their own 
(Roman Catholic) persuasion.* Austria, which permits 
no opportunity of exercising its reactionary influence in 
the Swiss Confederation, interfered on the most frivolous 
grounds. To avenge the Suppression of the Argovian 
Convents, the Austro-Romanists or Ultkamontanists, by 
which term we shall distinguish the Kebels or Secession 
party in the Cantons, determined to invite the Jesuits to 
return. The Ultramontanists held the balance of power 
in Switzerland just, as it is to be feared, they do in this 
country. To re-establish their influence this part}' re- 
called the Jesuits, whose Institution or Society, as early 
as in 181S, had been energetically prutested against, even 
in bigoted Freyburg,%3 incompatible with a Free State. 
The project of inviting this unpopular Society to Lucerne, 
against the decided will of the majority of the Swiss people, 
and the suggestion, at Lucerne, of the formation of a 
Separate League or ^oulfcrbunb', for the armed main- 
tenance of the peculiar views of the Ultka-eetrograde 
'party, produced a formidable agitation throughout the 
whole of Switzerland. This excitement engendered the 
Fkee Corps, which bear the same relation to Swiss Se- 
cession that our armed Emigration to Kaxsas bore to 
the aggressions of Slavery. But just as the usurpations 
and violences of Slavery produced such terrible results in 
Kansas, just so the Ultra-party, in Switzerland, must be 
held responsible for all that subsequently occurred there. 
The discovery of the Minutes of the Separate-League 
conspirators, of the 13th and 14th September, 1843, at 
the Baths of Rothen, near Lucerne, was a real triumph 

♦ Compare Menzel's History of Germany [in Mrs. Horrocks' Eng. Trans. (Bohn's 
Edition), 1S54]. Chapter CCLXVIII.Pao;e9 395-400 (particularly last «". Page 400), 
Vol. in, with (,'oiintf!6s Dora d'Ts^tria's Switzerland, the Pioneer of the Eej'orma- 
Cion, H. G.'p Trans., London, l.'^-^s, ij XXHT, Papes 4-39. particularly 28-30, Vol. 2. 



B5 

for the partisans of the Free Corps. It proved that the 
adversaries of the Volunteers, not they^ liad inaugurated 
the struggle. These Free Corps, however justifiable in 
princjiples and intention, were censurable in action. — 
Their invasion of Lucerne and the Valais was a parallel 
of John" Browx's foray into Virginia without the lofty 
enthusiasm and purity of purpose of the '• hero of the 
Osawatoniie." Moreover the expeditions of these Free 
Corps e:s^erienced the fate of John Brown's rash attempt. 
And just as his partj^ were shot down at Haepkr's Ferry 
in tlie name of Slavery, the Free Corps were shot down 
at the bridges across the Trient, the Reuss and the 
Emme, in the name of another, no less dangerous, slavery. 
These and similar successes over the Free Corps, particu- 
larly the bloody victory of the Ultramontanists at Lucerne, 
incited the conquerors to outrage all liberal sentiment and 
complete their preparations for the great struggle which 
they had determined to bring on, for, unless blind and 
stolid, they must have seen the terrible consequences 
which would ensue. 

Let those who blame the operations of the Swiss Free 
Corps, or Volunteers, remember what bands of worse 
than savages, spiritual and political despots have often 
let loose upon Liberals; let them recall the invasion of 
Kansas by hordes of Missourian desperadoes ; and let them 
recollect that no sooner had the Ultramontane coalition or 
Swiss Sonderhund gained the advantage over the Free 
Corps by the " Fratricide on the Trient," than they 
actually forbade the practice of jprivate worship^ to Siviss 
Protestants^ in their own Canton. ^'■The Grand Coun^ 
cil of the Valais decided that the Roman Catholic religion 
alone should a have worship culte.'''' Louis XIV had scarce- 
ly claimed more despotic authority over his Reformed sub- 
jects than the Ultramontanists exerted, where they had 



36 

the power of influencing citizens to tyrannize over tlieir 
fellow citizens. Zsciiokke says that now the assertion 
of the Prebendaey of Ritaz was made good : — " That 
Valais^ra;^ of all was to be Catholic, then Swiss." As an 
antithesis to this declaration bear in mind that the ex- 
ponents of Slavery, at Richmond, assumed that any one 
who did not believe in the divine institution of Chat- 
telage, was an Abolitionist. 

Thus it was made to appear to the w^orld that the 
Liberals inangurated the contest, whereas the opposite 
party had not only been long and secretly at work but 
were actually prepared to receive the attacks upon Sion 
and Lucerne which their crimes and conspiracies had oc- 
casioned. Are we not justified in stating that the sum- 
mons to arms issued by the Kebel leaders invited and 
justified a corresponding action in the Loyal party ? The 
Secessionists, both in Switzerland and the United States, 
acted on the principle of Cardinal Richelieu, that " a Lie 
which lasts four and twenty hours, makes great opera- 
tion." This sentiment is attributed to Frederic the 
Great, erroneously however. It did not originate with 
the atheistical soldier, but with a Cardinal of that church 
whose disciples dispersed to the winds the ashes of the 
martyred Zwingli mingled with those of swine. The 
Free Corps had the same plea for their organization and 
action that European liberals, like Victok Hugo, admit- 
ted as valid in favor of John Brown. I am not here 
to justify or condemn John Brown. I should not and I 
would not presume even farther to discuss the subject. — 
I have simply referred to it as an historical fact in order 
to show how human events repeat themselves, even as to 
details, and that, therefore, a critical study of history is 
often equivalent to personal experience in a mind capable 
of close analysis and comparison. 



3T 

In many respects, even to particulars, the parallel 
between the ideas, assumptions and operations of the 
Swiss-Separate-League-Cantons and the American-Seces- 
sion-States has been perfect. When Switzerland's War 
of Independence had been triumpliantly terminated, 
ZwiNGLi, the first and most practical of the Reformers, 
took his solemn stand against the Interventions of that 
Church, or rather Schism, which has been the Remittent 
Fever of the Confederation from his day to the present. 
In this prescience, he closely resembles our Washington, 
to whom Zwingli has been compared, in regard to his 
warnino;s asjainst foreio;n influences and entanglinor alii- 
ances. Both alike were reverenced by the wise and the 
good everywhere, and respected and beloved at home. — 
Both were true patriots, devoted to the best interests of 
their several countries, and "magnanimous." What a vast 
scope of the highest eulogy does the last epithet, justly 
applied, embrace. Zwingli energetically protested, I re- 
peat, with intrepid persistence against the lures and wiles 
of foreign incitations and entangling coalitions, and fell a 
victim to his foresight. His warnings were prophetic. 
The Influences, he denounced, as susceptible of produ- 
cing such demoralizing consequences, equivalent to the 
effects of Slavery, were the causes of differences and 
bloodshed in Switzerland from his day to the present 
time, and even so Slavery, proper, has always kept our 
own country in a state of feverish excitement, and has 
ended in producing one of the bloodiest wars upon re- 
cord. Alas, too soon for his country and the world, 
ZwixGLi fell a martyr to the animosity aroused by his 
patriotic eloquence. 

Looking back two hundred and seventy years we find 
that the Sondekbund of the XVIth Century known as the 
Borromean or Golden League of 1586, whose pretended 



38 

object was simply mutual protection and assistance, was 
not only a defen.sive but likewise an aggressive alliance. 
Just so tiie SoNDERBUXD of 1843-'6. In onr own case the 
Slav3 Party, its alherents and parasites, were never 
contented with the enjoyment of their own rights, but 
unceasingly endeavored to invade the prerogatives of 
ctliers ; to stem the tide of liberal progress and of free- 
dom ; and to acquire new guarantees for their very en- 
croachments. In a lesser degree and sphere we have 
seen the same spirit germinate into the treasonable x\sso- 
ciation of tlie Knights of the Golden Circle, a fitting 
title, with an object analogous to that of the Golden 
League, the violation of the Constitution, the extension 
of Slavery, and tlie subversion of Liberty, 

Just as the Ultramontanistsof Switzerland first violated 
the spirit and transgressed the limits of Federal compact, 
juit so the Slavocrat political leaders eluded the restraints 
of the AmericHU Constitution. Their urreasonable ex- 
actions and inexcusable violence, their cries of '' Give !" 
"Give!*' never to be satisfied, excited the Liberals, in both 
countries, to reprisals. In Switzerland the true Repub- 
licans took up arms simply to re-establish their brethren, 
the Unionists, within the territories of the traitorous alli- 
ance, in the possessions of those privileges which had been 
ravished from them by force. In the same manner the 
American Republicans responded to the Federal call to 
re-establish a violated Constitution, If, in order to do 
BO, they were compelled to break the letters of the Slave, 
what right had the chattel-owners to complain? Had 
they not trampled and spat upon the very compact which 
protected them in their uni-ighteous tyranny ; their hold 
upon the bodies and souls of their fellow men. 

As hereinbefore mentioned the Treaty of Alliance 
constituting the .^onbcvbuub^ (Secession Compactor Sep- 



39 
arate League of Ur-Schwyz, Old or Primitive Switzer- 
land,) was made public at Freybukg in May, 1846. In 
June it was, as it were, officially promulgated. 

Nothing new however was published, for Swiss Treason, 
like Southern Secession, had not been deliberated in se- 
cret. The very publicity of its proceedings and threats 
led the majority to suppose that there was more in them 
of menace than intention. Practical men could not be- 
lieve that Cantons or States would sacrifice their interests 
to their passions. 

Honest and sober men, however, both in Switzerland 
and in this country, were woefully mistaken.- 

Even as Secession arrayed Eleven Slaveholeing 
States, and relied with certainty- on the co-operation of 
Three more to resist the efforts of the Union abiding 
nineteen Free States, the S(juderbnnd arrayed seven Se- 
C3ding Cantons against twelve Cantons and two Half- 
Cmtons faithful to the Constitution. One Canton and 
two Haf-Cantons, like our doubting or doubtful Border 
States, remained indifferent, and constituted what has 
been styled the " IS'eutral Sonderbnnd." The effect of 
their attitude was like that of a cold palsy, upon many 
in tlie loyal districts who occupied about the same unin- 
teresting position as the Anti-coercion Unionists among 
us. One Canton, the money-making city of Basle, Avas 
deterred from decided action by fears of trade, but the 
Basle country, like rural Xew York, was true as steel to 
the Constitution and Union. 

It may be interesting to consider the relative po^it'on 
and forces of the two camps into which Switzerland was 
decided. 

Here was a little free country containing less than 
2,400,000 inhabitants, all told, surrounded by mighty 



40 

sovereignties sympathising with, and aiding, the revolu- 
tionists, menaced by an internal convulsion, which ar- 
rayed 416,000 people, disposed in natm-al fortresses of 
prodigious strength and susceptible of protracted resist- 
ance, against 1,880,000 faithful subjects and about 111,000 
neutrals. The proportion was Liberals, Federalists or 
Unionists, eighteen, to Ultramontanists, Sonderbundists 
or Rebels, j?i)5, to Neutral^^ one. The relative numbers 
in our own case are about the same, throwing out the slave 
element, Loyalists or Unionists, nineteen and one-fourth^ 
Slavocrats, Secessionsts or Rebels, ^6V, Neutrals, three. — 
Our Rebels however have this advantage, that their 
Slaves are a source of Strength, and the Sympathy of 
our Copperheads or Peace party almost divided our 
forces. 

The relative area of loyal and rebel territory were in 
both cases not much unlike. The territory of the Swiss 
Secession Cantons was, it is true, much more dislocated 
than that of the Confederate States, but its actual sus- 
ceptibility of defence was not inferior. The Districts of 
the Separate League lay in a crescent shape, somewhat 
resembling one of the mediaeval hunting horns, with a 
very large bell and mouth-piece. The latter, to the 
West, rested upon \\\q, Lake of Neuciiatel, while the 
Lake of the Four Cantons not inaptly represented the 
orifice of the former. The Sonderbund (Secession League) 
certainly enjoyed the best position militarily considered, 
for their troops could operate on interior lines while the 
Federals, as in our own case, were obliged to move on 
difficult exterior lines. 

What is more, just as the Secessionists had the pick, as 
they 8ui)posed, of our West Point officers, the Swiss 
Rebels had the advantage of entrusting their commands 
to leaders of great experience who had witnessed and 



41 

participated in the operations of actual war upon a large 
scale. Many of these officers were the more devoted to 
the Ultramontane party, and the more bitterly opposed 
the Liberals, from the fact that their talents had been 
exercised in the service of the king of Xaples and other 
despotic monarchs, where their superior abilities, Swiss 
courage, and the confidence, which their national charac- 
ter justified, had given them op|>ortunities far beyond 
those commensurate with their actual rank. Foreign 
officers also joined this unholy" league. 

Tiiese coincidences could be followed out much further 
would time permit^ but one point remains to be noticed. 
While the Ultramontanists, like the Slave faction. Seces- 
sionists and Copperheads, were claiming the most unre- 
stricted liberty for themselves, their tyranny exceeded all 
bounds, They abolished the Liberty of the Press, and 
permitted just as much free speech as would furnish an 
excuse for the punishment of the speaker. Pestalozzi, 
the celebrated Swiss " St. Vincent de Paul of Education," 
furnishes the only excuse for the excesses of the Separate 
League Cantons. " He saw that the principal cause of 
the misery of the multitude was their ignokance, which 
did not allow them to make use of their political rights, 
even for the amelioration of their position." The same 
can be the only explanation for the action and atrocities 
of the Rebels. Moreover had our Rebels been less igno- 
rant, they would not have permitted themselves to be 
slaughtered and expended for the interests of a wicked 
oligarchy. 

In the month of May, 1846. as we have said, the treaty 
of disunion constituting the Sonderhund (Separate League 
or Secession-Union) of Ur-Schweiz (the Switzerland of old 
time) was published. 



42 

Nothing new, however, was promulgated, for Just as 
treason at the South has been germinating for thirty 
years, so the Sonderbund doctrine was completely sys- 
tematized some time before the first attack was made 
upon the Swiss secessionists by the liberals. 

Nine months of conciliatory negotiation elapsed before 
the Swiss Diet came to the decision to act by force of 
arms. During that time the constitutional party was 
gradually becoming more and more satisfied that nothing 
remained but a resort to the ''''ultima ixdio reguinP The 
attitude of the Sonderbundists discovered that all other 
reasoning was in vain. Much the same state of things 
existed in the secession cantons as now exists in the 
seceding states. There, as here, there was a minority 
Union party who made themselves heard. There, as 
here, they attempted to make themselves felt also,, but, 
"whelmed in blood and tears," they were trampled under 
foot with savage severity by a treasonable majority. The 
Unionists at Lucerne and in other seceding cantons, ex- 
perienced exactly what would be the fate of a conserva- 
tive minority in Charleston, exactly w^hat has been the 
fate of such a minority in Tennessee. They were either 
bayoneted, or crushed by legal prosecution, into silence. 

The Rebel Swiss ought to have fought well. They 
were fanatics in the closest application of the word, and 
of a race brave, under any circumstances, to a proverb. 
They had sharpened their swords on the tomb of the mar- 
tyred St. Maurice, their rifles had been solemnly blessed 
by their spiritual guides, visions and miracles had been 
reported to cheer their hopes, and human assistance from 
abroad, and supernatural intervention from above, were 
confidently expected. 

Spiritual avarice, if the term be admissable, lent that 
vigor to the Sonderbund that the thirst for material 



43 

wealth, borrowing the mantle of chivalry, had infused 
into the lords and champions of Cottondora. 

Slowly but surely the unionist cantons proceeded with 
their preparations. On the 20th of July, 184Y, the con- 
servative portion of the Diet declared the Sonderbund, 
or Separate League, dissolved, and by successive decrees 
11th August and 3d September, proceeded to forbid the 
introduction of arms into the revolted states, and finally 
20th-29th October, to organize its forces for definitive 
action. In other words, the loyal and true cantons made 
ready to enforce the laws and coerce the rebels into sub- 
mission. 

Then Meter, deputy of Lucerne, in behalf of the Sond- 
erbund-Seven, rose in the Federal Diet and said ''The 
moment has come for us to withdraw." Invoking God's 
name, he cast upon the Federal, Loyal or Union repre- 
sentatives all present and future responsibility for coming 
events. Then the Rebel deputies departed. Had our 
Arch-rebel DA^^s and his associates critically studied the 
conduct of the Swiss secession leaders, they could not havo 
imitated and repeated with more hypocritical solemnity 
the farce of an unvoluntary departure — a withdrawing, 
a sundering, a Secession, deliberately planned and long 
since resolved upon, which was to plunge a peaceful, 
prosperous people in flames, in blood and in tears. 

The political difficulties in Switzerland had now reached 
their climax. The analogous period of our own struggle 
was the time of President Lincoln's inauguration. To 
use the quaint but emphatic old English phraseology, 
Loyalty and Disloyalty looked one another in the face. 
Both parties felt that the question, now, coi^ld not be 



determined without bloodshed. The Federal tJiet might, 
with reason, have addressed to the Rebel Administrative 
Council, the words of King John to the French monarch, 
before the walls of Anc-iers: 



'to' 



Peace be to France ; if France in peace permit 
Our just and lineal entrance to our own ! 
If not : bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven ! 
While's we, God's wrathful agent, do correct 
Their proud contempt that beat His peace to heaven. 

These sentiments of England's King convey the very gist 
of Lincoln's inaugural. What a diiference, however, 
between the immediate consequents of the declaration of 
the Swiss Federal Diet and those of the Presidential 
Address. 

The first Swiss Federal Call for Volunteers was for 
50,000 men, equal in proportion to our population to a 
levy of 650,000. President Lincoln's first demand was 
for 75,000 men, equal in pi'oportion to the Swiss popula- 
tion to less than 7,000. 

This was the great mistake of our "War. 

The second Swiss Federal Call was for 90,000 men, 
equivalent in the United States to a levy of 1,000,000; 
100,000 responded. 

Literally, — 

" The drum was beat ; and Jo ! 
The plough, the work-shop is forsaken, all 
Swarm to tlie old, familiar, long-loved banner." 

and bound upon their left arms, above the elbow, the red 
band, emblazoned with the white Helvetian cross, the 
symbol of National or Federal service. Tliis Armlet is a 
token that the Militiaman is no longer at the disposition 
of the individual Canton or State, to which he belongs, 
but of the whole Confederation or Union. 

On the mountains and in the valle3'S, in the marts and 
in the manufactories of every loyal territory, the cry " To 



45 
Arms ! the country is in danger !" was universal. Every- 
■where men felt and acted up to the sentiment. 

" Ever constant, ever true, 

Let the ■\Vortl be No ScrrejtdksJ 
Boldly dare, and greatly do : 
This shall brine; us greatly through; 

No Surrender ! No Surrender !" 

On the 26tli October, 1S47, General Dufour, of Geneva, 
the Federal Commander-in-Chief, issued his proclamation 
to an Army of from 90,000 to 100,000 coni'ederated free- 
men, formed into six divisions, Avith two hundred and 
sixty pieces of artillery. To these the Secession party 
opposed 30,000, in Lucerne, besides an army corps in other 
districts, and multitudes of mere militia filled with ra- 
ging enthusiasm. The bloodthirstiness evinced long 
beforehand by the Ultras of the Sonderbund was horrible, 
as repugnant to civilization as that of the majority of our 
Secessionists. "All means were employed to excite fana- 
ticism. The Papal Kuncio himself blessed the banners 
of those going to the frontiers, as formerly before the fra- 
tricidal war of Villmergen. Jesuits were appointed field- 
chaplains. Blessed amulets were distributed to the hordes 
of the Landsturm, to protect them from shot and sword, 
and preachers from the pulpit assured all the people of 
the assistance of the Virgin Mary to preserve theyn from 
death and make their victory sure." 

The regularly oi'ganized forces of the Sonderbund have 
been estimated as high as 36,000, supported by a Landi- 
turm of 4iS, 000. Total disposable numbers 83,000. From 
a comparison of all the different statements, between regu- 
larly organized troops, militia proper, &c., out of a popu- 
lation of 2,400,00t), at least 200,000 must have been in 
the field, or in garrison, or doing duty with the armies in 
the opposing camps. This would be equivalent to 2,250, 



46 

000 out of the population of our -whole country, North 
and South. 

It may seem surprising that a comparatively poor 
country like Switzerland could set in motion so large an 
army at so short a notice. The explanation is clear and 
convincing. The Cantons possess a Militia so admirably 
organized that it can be placed on a ^var footing at once. 
The Swiss motto is one which should be ours, ^^no Regu- 
lar Army hut every Citizen a Soldier ^ Our constitution 
contemplated this result. The Swiss Federal triumph 
was undoubtedly due to this preparation for -wak in 
time of PEACE. 

Dufour's address, " as energetic as it w^as moderate," 
seemed like the signal of the prompter for the rolling up 
of the curtain. Through what a series of magnificent 
scenery, rolled on the vigorous action of the short but 
startling, stringent but splendid, drama of Swiss military 
coercion. 

Strong in the Righteousness of their cause, the Loyal 
columns marched out from their homes to extinguish 
Secession. Moving proudly on, battery to battery, squad- 
ron to squadron, battalion to battalion answered wdth, — ■ 

"A martial song like a trumpet's call." 

From street and door-step, window and house top, hill 
and valley, matrons and maids, and all incapable of bear- 
ing arms, echoed encouragement. — 

"Singing of men that in battle array, 
Read)' iu heart and ready iu hand, 
March with banner and bugle and fife, 
To the Death lor their Native Land." 

"Singing of Death, and of honor that cannot die" — 
Death or the Salvation of the Fatherland. 

General William Henky Dufouk, the Crusher of the 
Sondorbund, like our Meade, the Hero of Gettysburgh, 



47 
was not by birth a Swiss. Even as Meade was 
born at Cadiz, in Spain, the son of Pennsylva- 
nian parents, even so Dufour, although born at 
Constance, in Baden, sprang from a family natives of 
Geneva. In the latter city he received his early educa- 
tion and made mathematics his peculiar study. When 
Geneva had been incorporated with France, he entered 
in 1807, the Polytechnic school at Paris, and, in 1809, 
received his first commission in the corps of military 
Engineers.* 

To this peculiarly scientific branch of the service we 
owe several of our best Generals, such as Roseceans, 
GiLLMOKE, Meade, if a combination not a speciality of 
talent is the test of superiority. 

At the period Dufour was appointed Commander-in- 
Chief, he had attained the age of 60 years. In personal 
appearance, if his portrait exposed for sale at the time, 
is reliable, he closely resembled, in face and form, our 
illustrious and lamented Clay, nor did he yield to that 



* DurocR participated in the last campaigns of the Empire, and rose to the rank 
of Captain. After tlie fall of Napoleon he entered the Swiss Federal Service, and 
soon became Colonel, the highest recognized grade. In 1S31. he was appointed 
Chief of the General Staff, and a short time afterwards Quartermaster-General. — 
To him was confided the Direction of the Triangulation, the basis of the Topo- 
graphical map of Switzerland. As Chief Instructor of Engineering at the Federal 
Military School at Thun, he rendered important services to his country. In 1S40, 
he published his •'■Memoir on the Artillery of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages,'''' 
and, in 1842, his "Manvalof Tactics for Officers of Ai^i. Arms," one of the best 
works of the kind in existence. In 1847, DtiFOUR, at the age of 60, received, with 
the title of General, the command of the Army opposed to the Sondekbcnd. ".Hm 
skillful mancPMvres speedily insvred the Triumph of Libei'al Switzerland. Fore- 
stalled by the rapidity of his action, foreign, governments did not dare to interfere, 
and the Roman Catholics sued for pardon. This campaign 7>nv«<?7Tt<i the L'nitt 
and. perhaps, the Ixdependence of the Helvetian Confederation," It won for 
General Dufour numerous testimonials of National gratitude. The Federal Diet 
voted him a Sabre of Honor and a Donative of ($s,000) 40,000 francs, (ZJic^ .• dea 
Contemporains.) Since this triumphant proof of his ability, Drront has been 
employed in a number of diplomatic missions, secret as well as public, in all 'ot 
which he acquired as much credit and respect as in his military operations. Do- 
four is Grand OflHcer of the French Legion of Honor. 



48 
noble exponent of loyal sentiments m the boldness, purity 
and self-negation of his patriotism. 

"On the 4th November, 1847, a decree of the Diet 
ordered General Dufour to dissolve the Sonderbund by 
force of arms." "Now the statesmen had done their 
part ; the sword must give the fatal blow." It was found 
difficult to bring such numerous battalions into the held 
and pay and feed them, at a time when Switzerland was' 
Btill suiFering from the effects of a year of scarcity and 
pecuniary embarrassments ; but the admirable energy of 
Berne, the metropolis, provided all. That canton had 
already imposed on itself all kinds of sacrifices. It had 
already emptied its treasury and' its arsenals, yet it did 
not hesitate to lend half a million of Swiss francs to the 
confederation ; proving that it was still worth}- of the 
glorious days of its War of Independence, 

Even the Progress of Hostilities in Switzerland bears 
out the Analogy to the present War in the United 
States. Just as the first attack was made upon our 
Federal Troops, constituting the Garrisons of Forts Sum- 
TEK and Pickens, on our Eastern and South Eastern 
maritime frontier, before the idea of Coercion was fully 
inaugurated, just so attempts were made to resist the 
Federal authorities in the extreme Northern and North 
Eastern Cantons of Aargau and St. Gall. Both these 
partial insurrections, happily, had the same result as our 
Bebels attempt upon Santa Rosa Island, opposite Pensa- 
cola. They were quickly suppressed. Nor was the first 
attack upon our Federal troops, stationed at the extreme 
South-western posts of the Union, in Texas, without a 
parallel abroad. Just so, before the Swiss iKitional army 
was fully arrayed, the Sonderbund faction transported a 
body of Uranians, troops of Uri, with great difficulty, 
across the Lepontian Alps, and made an attack upon the 



49 
Federals in the outlying Canton of Ticino, which projects 
southwards like a cape, into Lombardy. The first result 
however in the Tessestese was the exact reverse of that in 
Texas, since two of the Sonderbundist leaders paid for 
their temerity with their lives. The Loyal Swiss had a 
Lyon there, just as we had when most needed, in Missouri, 
— Colonel Lurmi. Happier than our lamented soldier- 
martyr, he survived the war to wear the laurels he had 
nobly won in defending the integrity of his country. This 
affair occurred on the southern slope of the Sf. Gothard, 
famous for the transit of Suwarrow in 1800. Thus blood 
had been shed by the rebels, on the very day that the 
Proclamation was issued for the Suppression of the 
Separate 'League, by force of arras. 

Dufour's plan of operations was founded on the very 
Anaconda System which has lately been so much decried 
and even derided in this country. It was successful. He 
surrounded the territories of the Sonderbund with an 
immense chain of troops, closing every entrance and exit. 
Simultaneously, he threw a separate coil around the Can- 
ton of Freyburg, partly detached from its confederate 
sisters. At the same time he struck with the instinctive 
energy of genius at one of the vital points of the rebel- 
lion. Like the keen Lammergeyer of the Alps, amid 
whose embattled ranges he was operating, with huge 
expanded wings feathered with steel, he swooped down 
on his quarry, Freyburg. To borrow the language of the 
gentle sport of Falconry, "unhooded and thrown off, h^ 
stoop" was like the levin-bolt, direct and dazzling, unim- 
peded by the "jesses" of red tape, untrammelled by the 
electric "signals" of beaurocratic interference. The matur- 
ed vigor of Dufour's "Forwards" strategy I'cca lis the vivid 
com]>arisf>ii of Octmi** Piccoloinini. 



50 

"Straight forward goes the Lightning's, 
>Straight forward goes the cannon-ball's fearful path, 
Swift, by directest course, it hurtles on, 
Shattering it makes its way, that it may shatter." 

The Federal Diet, as soon as it had appealed to arms, 
eommitted everything to the grey -haired general to whom 
they had entrusted the Sword. This was as it should have 
been, and the result justified their confidence. The mem- 
bers of the Diet felt the influence of, the Federal Military 
School of Thun, the "West Point" of the Swiss Confed- 
eration. The French Emperor Louis Napoleon was a 
pupil of this institution. There he had made his debut 
in the Artillery, just as his uncle had graduated at 
Brienne, to enter the same Arm of the French service. Oth- 
ers had seen service themselves. All tlie Members of 
Diet had the sufiicient judgment to appreciate and con- 
cede, that 

" In the Field, 
There, must the Present ONE direct. Supreme, 
The Head in Person rule ; his own eye see. — 
If War-Chief needs all Nature's greatest gifts. 
Grudge him not then, to live in all the vast 
Proportions of her greatness. He, alone. 
The living oracle, indwelling, must consult 
Not orders old, dead books, or musty papers." 

Nor had the Swiss general, himself forgotten the adage 
of the Great Captain under whose eagles he had made his 
fij'Bt campaigns, that " he^ who gropes (or moves irresolute- 
ly) losesy He knew that at this crisis, to " amuse him- 
self at Gembloux" would ruin his country. Dufour was 
imbued with the spirit of those hero-bards evoked by the 
War of 1812-'13, for the Deliverance of Germany, whose 
poetic gems like 

" Sparks of noble spirits flew," 

struck out by the clasli between Tyranny and Avenging 
Freedom. A wonderful generation that of Korner, bro- 
^In^rf^. ill race and instincts, of Zwingij. they poured forth 



51 
their blood and their song with et|uui conrage and hre lor 
their country. Sword in hand, the minstrel-martyr thun- 
dered the vital question : — 

" What would the Singer's Fatherland?— 

Strike to her feet the servile race, 

Forth, from her soil, the bloodhound chase, 

Free, bear free sons (upon her face) 

Or bed them, free, beneath her sand; 
That would my Fatherland ! 

And, in trumpet tones Korner responded, a few hours 
before lie fell upon the field of Gadebush, singing his 
Sword-Song while the wing of the death-augel beat 
chilly upon him : — 

"What I apture thus to he 
The Guardian of the Free. 
Hurrah !" 

Such were the Germans of 1S12-'15 under Bluciier ; 
such were the Swiss of 1847, under Dufour, who proved 

" Skill, mixed with Will, is he that teaches best." 

DuFOUR doubtless determined to commence his active 
operations with the capture of Freybm*g, for several 
reasons: morally, because it had long been a centre 
of Ultramontane intrigue and Secession conspiracies; 
physically, because the season was late for campaigning 
in a mountain region, and neither politics nor strategy 
could permit any unnecessary delay ; militarily, because 
it lay separate and unsupported. He selected Freyburg 
just as a good General falls unexpectedly on a dislocated 
corps or division en aire. The result showed that Dufour's 
plans had been digested with consummate discretion. 

The Canton of Freyburg is very peculiarly situated. 
Its capital, Dufour's object, even more so. Although 
completely embraced by the Liberal Cantons of Berne 
and Vaud, it has always been noted for its intolerance. 
Bisected ])y the Saane, or Sarine, the southern half is 



52 
mountainous but rich in pastures, while the northern 
embraces some of the finest agricultural ground in Swit- 
zerland. Portions of the latter are said to resemble 
districts in England, pleasant to the eyes of the farmer. 
Moreover this northern district is one of the few of the 
Confederation which produces corn in BuflBcient quantities 
to render it independent of foreign supplies. Between 
its animal and vegetable productions, the Canton is self- 
sustaining. Consequently as the harvest had been gath- 
ered, it should have made a protracted defence. 

Three languages are spoken in this Canton. Notwith- 
standing, the feelings of tlie people w-ere not divided as 
a rule, for the proportion of Protestants is very small and 
generally confined to particular localities. French is the 
predominating dialect towards the North, West, and in 
the towns, German in the North-east, and Romansch, a 
corruption of the Latin, in the South. 

"A Babylonish dialect, 
Which learned pedants much affect ; 
It was a parti-colored dress 
Of patch'd and piebald languages." 

The capital is even more singular, physically, morally, 
and relatively, than the canton. The upper town is 
French, the lower is German, both were behind the times, 
exclusive, opposed to new men and new ideas. Simond 
says "this town is so exactl}' on the limits of the Gallic and 
Germanic idioms, that one half of the inhabitants do not 
understand the other." Its site resembles that of Constan- 
tino in Algeria ; Civita Castellana in Yiterbo, States of 
the Church ; and Vicksl)urgh. Just as the Uvo former 
are seated on scarped rocks and the latter on a blufi", in 
Ox-bows of the Oued-el-Kebir, Rio Maggiore and the Mis- 
sissippi, just so Freyburg is situated on an elevated tongue 
of soft sand-stone rock, perforated Math caverns, and bare 
of vegetation, washed on three sides by the turbid Saane, 



53 
liowiiig without beauty, in its profound gloomy cLabUi. 
Before it, to the north, stretches as stated, one of the 
finest agricultural districts in the XXII Cantons. Behind 
it tower the Bernese Alps and mountain citadels of the 
Valais. With the latter it is connected by only a single 
good road, while five grand routes diverge from its gates 
to Berne, the Lakes of Bienne, Morat, Neuchatel and 
Geneva, The territory embraced between them, resembles 
a Fan, of which the Roads represent the Ribs, having a 
radius of fifteen miles. Of this fan, Freyburg city con- 
stitutes the knob or handle, grasped by the rapid Saane, 
rushing around and beneath the town, overhung by 
quaint buildings which seem to need only a gust of wind 
to topple them over the precipice into the gulf below. It 
is strange that while thus united, to the east, n©rth and 
west with the land of Progress and Liberality, by easy 
and fine roads and, to the south, the citadel of Romanism 
by only one circuitous route, Freyburg has lain buried in 
the sleep of apathy or worse. The population seemed 
willing to receive nothing beneficial by the many channels 
from the north, and any amount of prejudicial influences 
through the single one to the rear. They admitted they 
were behind the time, but consoled themselves that other 
Romanist Swiss were stiU more so. They were now 
destined to realize the truth of Victor Hugo's remark 
that " the North and the People arc the reservoirs of 
humanity." 

" Yut, Freedom ! yet thy bauiiur, torn, but llyin^,', 
Streams like a thunder-storm agaim^t Iho wind : 
Thy trumpet voice tho' broken now and dying;, 
The loudest still the tempest leaves behind; 
Thy tree hath lo^t its blossoms, and the rind 
Chopp'd by the axe seems rough and little worth, 
But the sap lasts,— and still the seed we find 
Sown deep, even in the botom of the Norixii ; 
So shall a belter spring less bitter fruit bring forth." 

Seated aloft and looking out in every direction 



54 
upon scenery iinexceeded in beauty and sublimity, in 
full view of the majestic Alps, the birthplace of the 
Freyburgher resembles, in its glorious elevation and sur- 
roundings, the cradle of Zwingli. Notwithstanding, the 
former seemed to have derived therefrom ideas .diametri- 
cally opposite to the celestial influences which nature 
infused into the expanding mind of the Keformer of 
Zurich. Prior to its capture by Dufour, in 1847, it was 
the stronghold of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Pre- 
vious to that date the education of its population had 
been in the hands of tlie Jesuits, and their College in this 
city had been the chief nursery of the Society out of Italy. 
This may account for the fact, that down to 1782, the 
'lj2t//^ou\-i^ government of^Sses^ was the closest aristocracy or oli- 
/ // g'^^i'chy, even among those Cantons whose people in " the 

middle ages, vegetated under the cudgels of their lords 
and the crosiers of their bishops." In the administration 
of its public affairs, it was styled the Venice of Switzer- 
land. Nor does the comparison between Freyburg and 
the Queen of the Adriatic cease with the consideration 
of its government. Just as the latter is almost unique in 
its peculiar natural position, architecture and other objects 
of curiosity, just so Freyburg greets the curious traveller 
with an unwonted display of mediaeval constructions and 
feudal remains, "The dirt, the Madonnas, the colossal 
crucifixes, strongly recalled Italy." "Striking and roman- 
tic," and "possessing so many attributes of the pictur- 
esque" it has an exterior " with which the meanness 
of the interior does not correspond." "Even in these days 
(1841) it contained five convents for men and four for 
women, within its walls. One of the?e is a college, on 
a very large scale, ' a staring, modern building, like a 
manufactory, wuth five stories,' for the Jesuits." "On 
the whole, the place is like no other in Switzerland." 



55 

Long lines of embattled walls climb its steep heights 
and plunge into the gloom of the Sarine. Watch-towers 
shoot up from space to space, and mediaeval bastions de- 
fend its gates, specimens of the first steps of scientific 
engineering. The massive constructions might almost 
laugh to scorn a siege undertaken with the ordinary 
field artillery of sixteen years since, and would have 
done so had the spirit of Freyburg's men equalled the 
solidity of its walls. 

It has been remarked that Dufom-'s plan of operations 
had been digested with consummate discretion. It was 
now carried out with equal ability. 

The chief command of the Secessionists in this district, 
had been confided to Gen. Maillakdoz. This officer had 
served with distinction under the same master in the Art 
of "War, Napoleon, as Dufouk; likewise under the Bour- 
bon Restoration in France. Yet how inferior did he 
prove himself in the application of the rules, learned 
under th6 same ensigns. Dufour completely outwitted 
him. Maillardoz had been led to expect that he would 
be attacked from the east. He anticipated that the prin- 
cipal forces of the Confederation would invade Freyburg 
by Laupen, the scene of a wonderful victory of the repub- 
lican Bernese over the league of the imperialist Nobles, 
in 1339, — Neueneck, and Schwarzenburg, all three on 
the river Sense, the boundary between the cantons of 
Berne and Freyburg. From that quarter patriotic Och- 
6ENBEIN, who Commanded the Free Corps, which had 
been beaten back from Lucerne in 1845, was indeed 
advancing. This movement, however, was more to 
attract the attention of the Rebel General than intended 
as a real attack, although capable, if necessary, of becom- 
ing one. Ochsenbein's march of about !■'*> miles, had to 



56 
be made tkrough long, deep and narrow defiles, susceptible 
of murderous defence, by the main route from Berne to 
Freyburg. This road emerging from the Bear's Gate of 
the Capital of the Confederation, passes through a diffi- 
cult but magnificent country, crosses the Sarine by a 
splendid suspension bridge 941 feet long, at an elevation 
of 180 feet, and delivers the traveller, at once, by a 
breach through the old houses, in the very heart of Frey- 
burg. Previous to the erection of this bridge, it required 
an hour of difficult descent, detour, and ascent, to cross 
the gorge of the Sarine, which is now accomplished in 
two minutes. 

While thus the attention of the Freyburghers was 
fascinated by the approach of Ochsenbein from the Ea&t, 
the other Federal divisions had been massed to the 
northward, in the loyal district of Morat, and, to the 
westward, in the Canton of Yaud, which sweeps round, 
beyond the head of the lakes of Geneva, to St. Maurice 
on the Road to Sion. On the 9th and 10th IS ovember, 
five days after promulgation of the Decree of the Federal 
Diet for the forcible dissolution of the Sonderbund, twenty 
thousand loyal troops invaded Freyburg. Relatively, 
this Canton occupied the same position in regard to the 
Sonderbund League that Virginia held to our own Rebel 
Confederacy. The frontier towns were occupied without 
a shot being fired. The capture of Staffis or Estavayer, 
on the Lake of Neuchatel, presents a perfect parallel 
to the capture of Alexandria on the Potomac. The 
Federals were astonished to meet with no opposi- 
tion. This was the more surprising since the whole 
canton of Freyburg, the district of the capital city espe- 
cially, was strongly defended by nature and art. This 
>*iTnultaneous closing in. would bo exactly exemplified by 



57 
the act of pushing in one of those Fans, whose size can be 
reduced, at once, one half, hy their ribs shutting into 
themselves like the joints of a telescope. From the north 
and west, strong columns advanced upon four of the five 
roads which come together at Freyburg. The Ut, most 
easterly, the direct connection between the beleaguered 
town and nucleus or main body of the Sonderbund, was 
already closed by Ochsenbein's occupation of Neueneck. 
The positions of Morat and Estavayer, on the 2d and 3d, 
now precluded all access to the lakes of Bienne and 
Neuchatel, by which the Rebels hoped to receive supplies 
from France, as well as smuggled assistance from "Cop- 
perhead" Neuchatel itself. The capture of Romont, on 
the 4:th, and Chatel St. Denis, on the 5tli, road, cut off 
all hopes of aid from sympathizing Savoy, across the lake 
of Geneva, through traitors in Lausanne and Vevay. 
Finally, the occupation of Bulle, at the junction of the 
road to Vevay, the 5tli, and the main route to the Valais, 
severed that, the last source of supply. From Bulle, like- 
wise, the mountain road through the same valley, but on 
the opposite shore, of the Sarine, could be completely su- 
pervised and commanded. On the 11th November, the 
Federals resmned their advance and, driving the rebels 
before them, huddled them in upon a centre incapable, 
under the circumstances, of maintaining such numbers. 
On the morning of the 12th November, Freyburg found 
itself completely surrounded on the west or left side of 
the Sarine, by an army of upwards of twenty thousand 
men, ready to move to the assault. Ochsenbein's division, 
meanwhile, observed the other side. Completely isolated, 
Freyburg had now to make good its boasts, and stand 
or fall alone. 

The population of this capital were commanded by 
officers considered skillful, and h;irl themselves a good 



58 ■ 
Military reputation. ''It was announced in foreign coun- 
tries that the Catholics of Freyburg would renew the 
wonders of the heroic defence of Saragossa." The natu- 
ral position of the Spanish city wa^ by no means as 
strong. All that was required was a like determination 
in the people. This did not exist and, before a shot was 
fired, the mere sight of the environing masses had engen- 
dered ideas of submission. From his headquarters at 
Avenches, about six miles to the north, on the 12th, 
Dufour had addressed a proclamation to his army and on 
the I'^th, had despatched a flag of truce to the authorities 
of the beleaguered town to convince them of the futility 
of defence. The Council of State convoked a Council of 
War, and the latter were sufficiently intimidated at the 
aspect of aftairs to request a suspension of arms. This 
was granted, conditionally, till the morning of the 14th. 
Meanwhile the Federal Colonel Rilliet, commanding the 
1st Division of Dufour's army, was either ignorant of this 
armistice or unwilling to accept it, unless his troops were 
permitted to occupy the "Wood of Dailliettes. This wood 
a]jpears to have been the key -point of the Freyburgher's 
line of defence, on the Xorth of the Sarine. It had been 
fortified with care and occupied by eleven hundred Reb- 
els, with orders to hold it to the last man. Rilliet's sum- 
mons to evacuate this post was refused. This was on 
the evening of the 13th. Thereupon the works were 
attacked, and the fiery Liberals of Vaud carried the main 
redoubts of Bertigny. The fighting continued after night- 
fall. Amid the darkness the Yaud troops charged 
through the abatis and ditches and drove the Frey- 
burgher's out of the wood. Had daylight lasted another 
hour, the Federals would have taken the City by storm. 
The struggle had been fierce and bloody, but it rendered 
farther sacrifices needlesf^. The Inspiration ot Liberty 



59 
proved too powerful even for tie Fanaticism of a Relig- 
ious Education, whose cardinal principle is blind and 
absolute obedience. At 8 A, M.. on the 14th, Freyburg 
capitulated and withdrew from the Sondcrbund. 

General Maillakdoz, the rebel commander, was obli- 
ged to seek refuge in the Federal headquarters against 
the outrages of his own troops, furious at their defeat, 
which they attributed to him while due to their own 
feeble resistance. Accused of betraying his associates in 
treason, he subsequently died in obscurity and misery. 
The Jesuits were expelled, the Canton militarily occu- 
pied and thoroughly subjugated, and, amid tears of joy, 
the incarceratsd Unionists welcomed their deliverers. 
To carry out the comparison in our own rase, witness the 
reception of Burnside in Eastern Tennessee. Thus satis- 
factorily the curtain fell on the first act of the Grand 
Drama of Coercion. Its action embraced a period of six 
days. 

Meanwhile, despite the loyal successes and tlieir own 
disparity of forces, the Rebels were enabled to make in- 
cursions into Loyal Cantons bordering on their own terri- 
tory, just as Maryland and Pennsylvania have suffered 
from Rebel invasion, and Ohio from Secessionist inroadsu 
The efforts of the Swiss Sonderbundists, however, were 
repelled and chastised with a celerity and loss whieli did 
not occur in om* own country. 

The fall of Freyburg did not make a decided impression 
on the more violent partisans of the Separate League. — 
"Matters would be very difierent," they said, " in }a\- 
cerne and in the Primitive Cantons.'' "The Sonderbund 
General di Sa.lis Soglio had at his disposal 30.000 men, at 
present entrenched behind impregnable positions. With 
such advantages he ji'ould be able," it was added, "to ar- 
r.eKt for years the progress of General Dufoin*"s 60,000 



60 
men." Lucerne was still proud of its victory over the 
"Free Companions" or Free Corps, in 1844 and 1845, and 
as for the Forest States, they were set down as uncon- 
querable. A slight success gained at Dietwyl, in Argovia, 
on the 10th November, by the Secessionist forces of 
Schwytz had confirmed all these hopes. Nevertheless, on 
the 20th November, Zug, the Georgia, as to location, of the 
Sonderbund, " terrified by the very appearance of the 
Federal flag, and somewhat lukewarm moreover, in the 
cause of rebellion, offered to capitulate, and on the 21st 
abandoned the Sonderbund. This alarmed even the most 
ardent Fire-eaters at the very headquarters of resistance 
to law, although the discouraging intelligence reached 
Lucerne at the very moment when the Imperialist Prince 
Schwartzenberg was tendering his sword to the Ultra- 
montane League, to which Austria had renewed her pro- 
mises of pecuniary aid and other assistance. The oppor- 
tune submission of Zug was doubly satisfactory. Its 
people received the Federals with rejoicing, and relieved 
them from the danger of a flank attack, not only through- 
out their advance, but at the very moment of their colli- 
sion with the enemy. What is more, it enabled the 
Federals to completely turn the strongest works upon 
which the safety of Lucerne depended. It likewise obvi- 
ated delay almost as dangerous to the Loyal party as a 
check or partial defeat, for the leaders of the Sonderbund 
liad positive assurances of foreign intervention in their 
favor, if they only could hold out a few days longer. 

In the selection of their leaders both the Loyal and 
Rebel Swiss presented a marked contrast to the action of 
our own people, whose infatuation leads them, too often, 
to entrust the direction of military aftairs to civilians of 
little or no experience in such matteK's. 

Another error into which we have fallen is the idea 



61 

that young officers are. 'per se, superior to old officers, 
because a few example* of precocious generalship have 
startled the world. People forget that Alexander, Gusta- 
vus, Frederic, and even Napoleon, were surrounded by 
experienced officers of the highest merit, and a veteran or 
excellent soldiery. Dufour, as was stated, was sixty. His 
opponent, di Salis-Soglio, was fifty seven. He belonged 
to the old aristocratic Salis family, which even down to 
the year of his birth 1790, ruled alone, like sovereigns, in 
the democratic Grisons, with an influence indirectly abso- 
lute. He had served witli distinction against Napoleon, so 
that he and Dufour commenced and ended their careers in 
opposing camps. Morally, however, each had changed 
sides. In 1813-'14:, di Salis-Soglio was fighting for the Lib- 
eration of Germany from the curse of a tyranny, which 
Dufour, and this latter's defeated antagonist, Maillardoz 
were assisting to maintain. In 1847, di Salis-Soglio, al- 
though a Protestant, was commanding in behalf of the 
Jesuits, while Dufour was the champion of Free Thought 
and Liberty in general. It has been remarked that in 
the Swiss conflicts since the XVI century, the pedantic 
Protestants and the Jesuits, for their own interests, always 
joined hands with the Foreign Powers against the Lib- 
erals. Ochsenbein, aged thirty six, must have been a 
man of more than ordinary ability. He had been chief 
of the Federal Staff", President of the Berne Cantonal 
Administration, and, through that position, Presiding Offi- 
cer of the Federal Diet. Afterwards he was a general in 
the service of Napoleon III. The other Division com- 
manders justified the confidence of the nation. 

After the conquest of Freyburg, Dufour's next great 
object was the capture of Lucerne. Even there, despite 
the apparent unanimity of Rebel sentiment, an element 
of loyalty existed, suppressed however with the greatest 



62 
Severity. Moreover, while the Federal columns were 
concentrating for decisive action, many of the necessaries 
of life were already wanting in tlie main Rebel stronghold. 
Dufour now displayed as much Practical Strategy in his 
movements against this hot bed of seditition, as he had 
shown in his previous operations. ISTor was the Swiss 
Federal Secretary of State less equal to his position than 
the gray-haired General.in-Chief. His course was the 
direct opposite of that pursued by our own high official in 
the same relative position. He would not allow the 
French Embassy to communicate with the traitor autho- 
rities in Lucerne, or afford any moral support to the Rebel 
main -army, strangling in the coil of the loyal Anaconda. 

On tlie letli November, Dufour transferred his headquarters to 
Aarau. This town lies on the Aar, about thirty miles N, N. W. 
of Lucerne. It is situated at the apex of an ellipse, whose butt is 
marked out by the curve of the Emme and Eeuss. Opposite the 
centre of this convex, stands Lucerne, at the foot of the lake of 
the Four Cantons, It is useless in this connection, to go into a 
detailed description of this city. It Avas the residence of the Papal 
Nuncio; since 1845 one of the headquarters of the Jesuits ; con- 
tained, according to Murray, a population of eight thousand one 
hundred and fifty-nine Roman Catholics and one hundred and 
eighty Protestants ; and had distinguished itself, during the two 
preceding years, by the persecution of its citizens ojDposed to the 
majority or dominant party. Of these prosecutions Zschokke 
remarks "No page in the history of Switzerland is stained with 
blacker sins in the admiuistration of public justice." Lucerne not 
only resembled Charleston in the ultra-intolerance of its institutions 
but likewise in its military position. Just as that stronghold of 
Slavery, Nullification and Secession was formerly extremely defensi- 
ble in itself, just so this centre of Ultramontanism or spiritual 
Serfdom and Sonderbundism was, a century 'since, a place of mili- 
tary importance. Even as the South Carolinian metrojoolis trium- 
phantly repulsed a British attack in 177G, and was only captured 
after a sharp siege by Sir Henry Clinton in 1780 ; so the Swiss cita- 
del, centre or pivot of the successive "Separate Leagues" had held 
its enemies at bay with its circle of massive feudal watch-towers, 
gothic battlements and walls. Both are no longer tenable in these 
days of improved artillery after their advanced works have fallen. 
Lucerne demonstrated and Charleston is now exemplifying that 
their safety depends on the maintenance of an exterior line of great 
natural strength. This line of defence, a little concave towards the 
Swiss town constitutes the shortest diameter of the egg-shaj^ed 
district embraced within the most eastern and western of the five 
main roads, diverging from Aarau and converging to Lucerne, 
which band it like meridian lines. The principal positions which 
protect Lucerne, together, form a flattened arc having a chord of 



63 

twenty- two miles. Of this the eastern extremitj' rests on the lake of 
Zug and the western on the town of Willisau, on the Wigger, 
while its centre touches the southern extremity of the Lake of 
iSenipach. 

The Federal main army whose lieadquarters were at Aarau was 
distributed into four grand divisions, to break, with a simultaneous 
shock, tlirough this line of formidable positions from the North. 
A column of the first, most easterly, army-corps so to speak advanced 
through the extreme eastern portion of Aargau, which thrusts 
itself South, far dowu, between the Cantons of Zug and Argovia. 
This district is known in Switzerland as the Freiamt, or Free 
Bailiwicks. Prior to 1814, it had been a bone of contention, on & 
question of jurisdiction, between Zug and Argovia. Sul)sequent 
to that date, it proved an apjjle of discord in the Federal Diet. 
The Suppression of the Monastical institutions therein, for treason- 
able practices and violence against the established authorities, led, 
ostensibly, to the formation of the Sonderbuud in 184ci-"G-''7. As 
this district is flanked for about half its depth, by the territory of 
Zug, it w^as fortunate for the Federals that this Kebel Canton had 
submitted to them. Already a large portion of it had been milita- 
rily occupied by Union troojjs. The second column of the first 
corps, or Division-ZiEGLER, followed the 8d road, along the stream 
of the Winen, midway between the Hallwyler and Baldegger Lakes, 
to the East, and the Lake of Sempach, to the West, passing through 
Munster. This route bisected the Lucernese line of defence. The 
2d corps, divisiou-DoNATS, advanced upon the 4th road, through 
Sursee, along the western shore of the Lake of Sempach and in 
sight of the battle fields of Buttisholz and Sempach, both so glori- 
ous to the republican Swiss ; the first as disastrous to the English 
Free Companies, in 1375, as the second had been to the Austrians, 
in ICSC). The 3d corps, division-BuRCKHARDT. directed its march 
by the 5th and most western road ujion Willisau, the extreme left 
of the Rebels. Meanwhile a 4th corps, reserve-division-OciisEN- 
BEiN, threatened, from the West, the left-vear of the Lucernese, just 
as this force, under his orders, had menaced the right-rear of the 
Frey burghers. Ochsenbein, at this date a Federal Colonel, became, 
subsequently, a general in the service of Napoleon IIL Having 
made a rapid return-march tlirough Berne, he Vtas, now, advancing 
thence, by the difiicult, serpentine route through the Emmen-Thal 
and the Entlibuch. On the 22d November, he had an action at 
E.scholzniatt, on the frontiers of the Canton of Lucerne. On the 
23d a more serious engagement, five miles further on, occurred at 
Schupfheim. Thus advancing slowly and with difficulty, Ochsen- 
bein was forcing his way through, to work in, at the time fixed, as 
directed, with the rest. This gallant officer now had an opportu- 
nity to retrieve the credit he had lost in 1845, by the failure of his 
aggressive movements on the same; road, a failure attributable 
rather to the indiscipline of his Volunteer troops, (Free Corps) 
than to any fault of his own. At the same time a sixth column, the 
brigade-ZELLER, invaded Schwytz through the March, or mountain 
range, South of the eastern extremity of the Lake of Zurich, con- 
verging to take the right flank of the Lucernese line in reverse. A 
seventh column, the division Gmur, advanced through the baili- 
wick of Knonau, about two miles west from Capfel, where the 
magnanimous Zwingli, the First of the Great Reformers, was mur- 
dered in cold blood, after the battle of the 11th of October. 1531. 
in which he had been present as Chaplain. He was killed, by a 



64 

Roman-Catholic Captain of Unterwalden, while lying wounded 
and :;ueechless on the tield. In like manner, the Romanist Captain 
of the Swiss Guards of the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III of 
France, assassinated the Prince of Conde after the battle of Jarnac, 
12th or 13th March 1569. The Prince had surrendered and was 
sitting, exhausted, propped against a tree, with his thigh bone 
fractured and protruding, when his murderer galloped up and shot 
him through the head. The same spirit had prompted the Slaugh- 
ter of the Free Corps and animated many partisans of the Sonder- 
bund. This distribution of the Federal forces is founded on a 
comparison of the language of Zschokke and Richon, the historians 
at hand, who present the most detailed accounts of the military 
movements. 

Dutour intended to distract the enemy's attention by these seven 
distinct menaces and deceive them as to the point on which his 
real attack was directed. His superiority of force doubtless justified 
this disposition, although his different divisions and columns were 
divided from each other by huge mountains, dangerous defiles, 
broad lakes and rapid streams. He knew that the Rebels would 
have the greatest difficulty in reinforcing a weak point even if they 
attempted to do so, while their whole line was equally endangered. 
Having thus divided the attention of the Rebel leaders and attrac- 
ted it to so many different quarters, he rapidly massed the bulk of 
his troops in tne point of the Freiarat, shut in between the river 
Reuss, on the East, and the high range of the Linderberg, to the 
west. About ten miles north-east of Lucerne, these come together. 
This acute triangle has a base only five miles wide at Muri, ten 
miles north of Klein-Dietwyl, half a mile from its apex. A little 
less than a mile beyond this point, the road crossed the Reuss by a 
covered bridge, whose issue on the south shore was swept by the 
heavy artillery of a strong bridge-head. Here the road coming in 
from the N. E., from Brugg, and the lake of Zug, joined the route 
from Muri and continued on, through Roth or Root, to Lucerne. 
Both ran under the fortified heights of the Rothenberg, and, oppo- 
site the fork, stood the village of Gislikon, covered by extensive 
field works. These strong intrenchments had been finished several 
months previous, despite the summons of the Federal Diet to stop 
their construction. Since their completion, the Rebels had guaran- 
teed their possession by constantly maintaining strong garrisons 
therein. Gislikon had thus become the key to Lucerne on the 
North. The Lake of the Forest Cantons i^recluded attack from the 
South or immediate rear. 

On the atternoon of the 22d of November, the confined funnel or 
triangle between Muri and Dietwyl, above described, was literally 
gorged or overflowing with troops, destined to make the grand 
attack. Forward they must when the order to advance was given. 
The impulsion from the rear would have forced on those in front if 
their enthusiasm had failed. Momentum would have lent its 
immense forces to mass. This proved emphatically so, for the 
leading battalions carried the Rebel works with a rush. Just as 
Fkederic stormed the heights of Lissa in 1757; just as Laudohn 
escaladed the ramparts of Schweidnitz in 1761 ; just as Waynk 
charged bayonet into Stony Point in 1779 ; just as Stjwarrow 
captured Ismail by assault in 1790, and Praga in 1794 ; and just as 
the French columns, in the narrow streets of Paps, charged over 
the insurgent barricades, in 1848 and 1851 -their front ranks car- 
ried over, dead or alive, by the accelerated pressure of those 



65 

beliind— just so the Federals iDonrcd into the Rebel intrcnchincDts 
on the ensuing day. Tliis we sh;ill see hut more in detail. 

During the uight of the 22d and 23d November, tlie Federals 
threw two bridges of boats across tlie Reuss, one below the ruins of 
the permanent structure at Sins, three miles North of Dietwyl, 
which had been destroyed by the Sonderbundists, the other above 
the covered bridge of Gislikon. Early on the morning of the 22d, 
the sub-division Egloff crossed by the lower pontoon bridge to turn 
the Rotlienberg from tlie side of Zug. This manoeuvre against the 
extreme Reljcl right, brought on a sharp and protracted conflict 
which lasted throughout tlie day. The sub-divisions under Briga- 
tliers IsLER and Ritter, sweeping round to take the enemy's right 
in reverse, encountered the Rebels advantageously posted on shel- 
tered, rising ground, in the vicinity of Meyers-kappel. The defen- 
ders were chiefly Riflemen from the Forest Cantons, armed with 
weapons to whose use they liad been accustomed since their child- 
hood. After a hot conflict, these were compelled to abandon their 
position. They retreated, fighting however, behind Udligenschwyl 
to the Kiemenberg. Here they formed again in order of battle 
and, again, were driven back, disputing every inch of ground to 
Ebikon, three miles north ot Lucerne. This was between 2 and 3 
P.M. when they were abandoned by their artillery, which galloped 
off into the invested town. Thus deserted and having to depend 
upon their rifles alone, the Unterwalden Battalion still held 
Ebikon after Lucerne itself had surrendered. Entirely forgotten 
by their generals, the Rebel authorities, in fact by their whole 
party, they still ])iesented an undaunted front when their superiors 
had fled and all the other troops had sul)mitted. All honor to 
these brave mountain men although fighting in the defence of 
erroneous principles and obsolete ideas. 

Befor'? nightfall, despite the desperate resistance they had 
encountered, the Federals had tiius fought their way to the summit 
of the Kiemenberg, in the rear of Gislikon. These heights, so 
gallantly won, commanded the main rebel fortifications, upon 
•whicli so much skill and labor had been expended in vain. Here 
the victors bivouaced within si.x miles, to the N. E.. of Lucerne. 

Meanwhile the sub-division-EoLOFF stormed the heights in the 
rear of Honau, after the Zurich artillery hurl silenced the rebel guns 
in that position. Driving the enemy Iiefore them, they crowned 
a second summit which commanded Gislikon. Here the two 
sul>-divisions Zieoler and Egloff were to have effected a junction, 
and, thence, to have moved, simultaneously, against the ))rincipal 
defences of the Sonderi)undists. This junction did not take place. 
Ziegler's division had passed tlie Reuss later on the 28d, by the 
upper bridge of boats, above Gislikon, to attack the north siile of 
the Rotlienberg. These troops, however, had a mighty task before 
them, and were correspondingly delayed. They had not only 
to face the heavy artillery in the works enfilading the de- 
bouches of the covered britlge of Gislikon, but also those around 
the village itself. Besides this, the heights of Gislikon were 
traversed by trenches lined with the practiced riflemen of Unter- 
walden, and the ridges of the mountain were occupied by militia, 
accustomed to the use of fire-arms and completely sheltered from 
their assailants, in the woods. 

Finally, amid sliouts whicli must have beeu heard in 
Lucerne, the heights and defences of Gislikon were car- ^ 



66 
ned and the loyal artillery of Soleure established there: 
The rebel Commander-in-Chief, however inferior to Dufour 
in Strategy, was not wanting to himself, in energy, at this 
crisis. He headed the rebel troops and made such a des- 
perate counter-attack upon the successful Federals that 
they were forced to give ground. Fortunately this part 
of the field admitted the rapid manoeuvring of artillery. 
A Bernese 12-pdr. howitzer battery was brought up at full 
gallop and poured a storm of shell upon the opposing 
guns. It is claimed that out of sixty shots fired, fifty 
hit the points aimed at. They exploded the ammunition 
boxes of the rebel artillery,, and dispersed the cannoneers 
in an instant. Salis-Soglio himself was wounded by the 
fragment of a shell. Everything was thrown into ir- 
remediable confusion. This artillery charge, improvised 
by Colonel Denzlee of Zurich, like the Dragoon charge 
made by the younger Kellerman, or the x4.rtillery. volley 
of Marmont at Marengo, decided the fate of the day. It 
was now 4 F. M. Among the Kebels all was terror and 
confusion. The fortifications of Gislikon were abandoned ; 
the militia had already fled from their coverts. There 
was fighting on the heights however until night-fall. — 
But as darkness closed in the horizon towards the north- 
east and north was all aglow with the bivouac-fires of the 
victors. To the west likewise, the sky was illuminated, 
for, while the principal fighting had been going on so 
fiercely towards the north, Ochsenbein's leading battalions 
had occupied the plateau and heights of Littau, within 
three miles of Lucerne. The city was completely at the 
mercy of Dafour. He demanded an unconditional surren- 
der, and the haughty Charleston of the Sondcrbund was 
forced to throw itself upon the mercy of the Federal Chief 
Thus Dufour, who had smothered the fire of rebellion in 
Froyburg in five days, in seven more days quenched 



67 
this furnace of revolt. The next moruing, the 24th No- 
vember, an apparently almost endless procession of victo- 
rious Unionists poured into the city. To the corps which 
had so distinguished themselves upon the Rothenberg, and 
those which had fought their way, step by step, for twenty 
five miles, through the upper Entlibach, were now united 
the Brigade, or Division, Gmur, which had crossed the 
Canton of Schwytz, thro the March, and the third division, 
whose unopposed advance, through the valley of Ilitzkirch, 
had been a mere military promenade. Such a magnifi- 
cent spectacle had never before been witnessed in the 
Confederation ; 60,000 citizen-soldiery perfectly organized 
with all their material and equipages, swelled the triumph- 
ant procession of Loyalty through the streets of the Rebel 
city. With the troops returned the crowds of proscribed 
Unionists, who had been exiled on account of their re- 
formed faith and liberal opinions. Every generous heart 
will sympathize with their joy and glory in such a resto- 
ration to their native seats. 

Previous, however, to the surrender of Lucerne, and 
while Salis-Soglio still held out hopes of being able to 
maintain his ground at Ebikon, the Jesuits who had been 
the moving cause of all the bloodshed, the expenditure, 
the losses, and the misery consequent on the Separate 
League, the Sonderbund Council of War, the prominent 
factious, and even associations of monks and nnns, fled 
from the town. These embarked, under the protection 
of a company of infantry, on board of a steamboat already 
prepared. Twenty land-jagers served as a guard to the 
fugitives. They carried with them the treasure and seals 
of the State, the archives of the Rebel Council of War, 
important official documents, the booty captured by the 
foray into the Canton of Ticino, and stores of grain. Thus 
they escaped into mountains, and thence into foreign 



68 

countries, leaving rich individuals, who had fostered, 
and wealthy institutions, which had^favored, the rebellion, 
to pay dearly for their wicked co-operation with treason. 
This may prefigure the fate of our Secession Leaders and 
Abettors. Like the leading Swiss traitors they may save 
their worthless lives to expiate in exile and poverty or 
contumely, amid the hatred and execrations of their dupes, 
the evil and sorrow they have brought home to the fire- 
sides of our common country. 

On the 25th, the Cantons of Uei, Schwytz and Untek- 
WALDEN, belonging to the Sonderbund (corresponding to 
Alabama, Mississippi and Florida in this country), which, 
in 1798, displayed so much heroism against the French, 
imitated the prudence of the people of Freyburg, and 
of Lucerne, and capitulated. 

Here we should observe a fact extremely pertinent to 
our own situation. Notwithstanding the extreme de- 
fensibleness of the mountains of Switzerland, — particu- 
larly those of the original Forest Cantons, embraced 
within the limits of the Sonderbund, — as soon as Lucekne 
had yielded, the Eebel Leaders, at once, acknowledged 
that the fate of Swiss Secession depended upon the pos- 
session of the large fortified towns, and upon the main- 
tenance of the armies massed in and about them. This 
should be a consolation to those who fear that a 
Guerilla War in the South can lead to any successful 
result or defer, for more than a short period, its entire 
subjugation. The Sonderbund Generals saw at a glance 
the game was up, after their armies had been dissipated 
and the principal places taken. So it will be with our 
Southern Secession. It will collapse at once when the 
armies of Lee, Bragg, Beaukegajrd, Johnson and Ma- 
GRUDER are destroyed. 
On the 29th November, the Valais, — beyond the lofty 



69 
Bernese Alps and along the Rhone, — which might be 
said to represent the Rebel territory beyond the Missis- 
sippi, — the Texas and most remote border State ofSwit;^- 
erland, the focus of retrognde ideas, bordering on the 
most bigoted district of Sardinia, petitioned to be received 
back into the Union. 

Meanwhile on the 27th ISTovember, 23 days alter 
tlie decree of the Diet or Congress, had ortlered the Swiss 
General to draw his sword and unfurl the Federal stand- 
ard, the military chief of the Union was enabled to 
annonnce that the Secession Alliance was dissolved. The 
fire-e:iting Cantons had gained nothing by their rashness 
but the humiliating conviction of their own weakness as 
compared with the Federal power and wilh* 

Let Traitors and Demagogues, whom the thirst for 
power induces to pander to spiritual and material des- 
potism, read a lesson in the fate of the Swiss Sonderbund, 
Separate or Secession League, and its Leaders. " That 
(Separate League) which had been proclaimed before 
Europe as the rock of religion and of true freedom, col- 
lapsed at the first dash of the waves like a house built 
upon the sand." It is to be hoped that the Cotton-States- 
Confederate-League, built upon the corner stone of Slavery, 
will likewise utterly perish bet\veen the shattering of war 
and the earthquake of moral regeneration. The spiritual 
guides (not inaptly reproduced in our own country by the 
blavocrat divines) who had excited their dupes to rebel- 
lion in Switzerland by pretended miracles, had not in- 
spired them with the same resolution, to maintain the 

* It is but just to myself to state that an Article entitled "Secession in Switz- 
BBLand" was furnished by me. iu February, ISO], to the New York Evening Poet, 
and published in the first column, first page, of that paper. If the example which 
the Swiss Authorities presented for our Instruction, had been imitated by our 
Government, this War would not have dragged on through fearful years. Never- 
theless the Delay has been Providential, for it has effectually solved the Pr9blem, 
whether Slavery or the Union shall survive, and proved that Slavery ia incom- 
patible with Free Institutions. Now that Slavery is doomed, if wc arc faithful 
to God and true to ourselves, what a glorious Cureer looms up before our Nation 
in tbe Future. J. VV. ue P. 



70 
Independence of the Separate League, that their real 
wrongs and a good cause had given them to win and 
maintain the freedom of the same districts, centuries 
before and against greater odds. " The Jesuits had 
ev^erj^where fled on the entrance of the Confederates," 
says Zschokke, " now tliey were forever banished from 
Swiss soil." The rebellion had been so promptly ex- 
tinguished that the French envoy actually had not time 
to proffer foreign assistance, or even to propose to mediate 
between the Federal Diet and the Council of War of the 
Seven Rebel Cantons. Its members were already fugi- 
tives when the French messenger went to seek them. At 
the outbreak of hostilities the French ministers with other 
Diplomatists had retired to neutral or, as we would term 
it, "copperhead" or "peace-party" Neuchatel. That 
Canton and another, Inner-Appenzell, which had re- 
fused to perform their duty as loyal Confederates during 
the war, were subjected to very heavy fines for the benefit 
of the reorganized Confederation. 

Nor ■u'ere the Expulsion of the Jesuits and the pecuniary suffer- 
ings of the Neutral Sonderbund, the only consequences of this mad 
attempt " to arrest the ettulgent chariot of Holy Liberty." "Lu- 
cerne," temporarily ruined, " instituted judicial suits against the 
members of her former council for embezzlement of the public 
money, and conliscated tlie estates of those who provoked the war." 
" Siiortly afterwards she sought a doubtful remedy by suppressing 
the convents, that she might be indemnified by their property ; and 
the people before whose veto the decree was laid, did not refuse 
their consent." The members of the Freyburg Council who had 
voted for the Separate League " were brought to a most severe 
account in discharging the war expenses." •' The Valais, also, laid 
almost all her share of the expenses upon those who had voted for, 
advised and preached the war." These burthens had to be espe- 
cially borne by the monastical and other ecclesiastical institutions 
which had hoped to profit by the rel)ellion. In fact the Sonder- 
bund Cantons were called upon to reimburse the War Expenses 
incurred by the Confederacy. They were militarily occupied until 
the first installment had been paid and adequate security given for 
the balance. " Great reforms now took place (in 1848) in all the 
Cantons of the former Sonderbund. Even in Urt, irhere, since 
Tet.l's time, no written constitution had ever existed, one teas now 
draicn up and accepted, by the communes." 

No Failure could have been more decided, no Sup- 



V-;. 



tfii 



n 

pression more mortifying than that of the Ultramontane 

or Secession League in Switzerland. No Action could 

have been more prompt and energetic, no Triumph more 

complete and beneficial than that of the Swiss Loyalists 

or Union party. 

" One cannot too much admire the calm firmness which the men 
■who presided over the destinies of the Confederation manifested in 
1847. Menaced by France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and liaving 
at their disposal only a portion of the forces of a nation which does 
not possess altogether two millions and a half of citizens, they -were 
discouraged neither by the intrigues of the monks, nor by the 
anathemas of the Romish clergy; l)y the anger of certain empirics, 
nor by the military reputation of those Cantons, which were so 
sadly misled by fatal iniluences. What an example tor such coun- 
tries as are Avont to be alarmed on account of their comparative %i' 
•weakness! Switzerland has taught them that a people, conscious of 
its right, and resolved to defend it, has nothing to fear on earthy 

This Triumph of Patriotism realized the Truth of ' V 

Zschokke's prophetic declaration, that ^* Heaven helps only 
those loho march joyously to hattle and to death in a just 
cause I hut rejects those who sit sluggishly in arrogant ^! 

security.'''' 

Eighteen days of military operations, wliich might even 
be reduced to fifteen of manoeuvring and fighting, anni- 
hilated the Sonderbund, The history of the world pre- 
sents but few examples of such a speedy solution of a 
great political problem. The most pertinent examples 
are the destruction, in a few days, of the Bohemian King- 
dom of the Elector-Palatine, Frederic, by the generals of 
Ferdinand II; the total defeat of the Belgian armies, 
in eight days, by the heroic Prixce of Orange, and 
the complete overthrow, in three days, of the Sardinian 
armaments by PxVdetsky. Compared however with the 
rout of the Weissex-Berg, in 1620, the conflicts of Has- 
SELT in 1830, and the battle of Novara, in 1819, the 
combat of Gislikon, in 1847, was a mere fiasco, "A 
whift' of grape-shot," to use a Napoleonic expression, or, 
more properly speaking, a flurry of shells, blew away the 
pretentions of the Sonderbund. 

The final result seems to justify the idea that the mad 



72 
ness and incipient success of tlie Separate League was 
permitted by Providence, in order that its suppression 
might convince Switzerland of the defects of its dislocated 
Confederacy, and induce the Cantons to consent to a more 
■determined Centralization of authority. 

The Separate League which was to have divided Swit- 
zerland ; to have arrested the progress of the age ; to have 
restored abuses for t!ie beneiit of the few to the suffering 
of the many ; liad a directly opposite result. It transmuted 
the loose Confederation of XXII Independent Cantons 
into a well-knit Nationality of twenty two members. 

May the example not be lost upon us. May Providence 
conduct our affairs to the same happy result that he vouch- 
safed in the case of the Swiss, must be the prayer of every 
honest man and true patriot. 

The lessons of this history we think can scarcely be lost 
upon us. The effort to shatter tlic Alpine Republic, in a 
brief period, proved a miserable failure, and the attempt 
here made to divide and destroy our Free Government, 
we know will, in God's good time, come to naught. And 
even as the National Life Struggle, in Switzerland, ended 
in a more healthy and vigorous National Existence, so, 
we trust, that the fiery trial through which we as a people 
are now passing, will eventuate not only in a restored 
UNITY, but, if need be, in a stronger democratic-rkpubli- 
CAN GOVERNMENT, better fitted to perform its great work, 
and hold its connnanding position among the Nations. 

" Gort of our Father?, hear onr earnest Cry ! 

Our Hope, onr Strength, onr Refnee is in Thee. 
Conlonnd onr Foe?, and make their Legions fly; 
Streujthcn our Hosts and give them Victory I 
Victory !— Victory I— 
Oh, God of Armies, give us Victory!" 
" For the sad JUUions of the groaning Earth, 

Helpless and cnisned beneath Oppression's Rod, 
For every Hope that haUows Home and Ilc.^'-th. 
For heaven-born Liberty, the Child of God, 
Victory ! — Victory ! — 
God of the Nations, give ns Victory ! 

" From War's red Hell, involved in smoke and flame, 
From up-piled Altars of onr noblest Dead. 
"We cry to Thee ! oh. for Thv glorious Name, 
Make bare Thine Arm and smite our Foes with dread. 
Victory !— Victory ! — 
On. God op Battles, give its Victory !" Anchor. 






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